With everyone getting ready for the holiday season, pro sports continues and locally we are fortunate to have one remaining Vancouver Canuck home game prior to the Christmas break.

The game see’s the Blues coming to town sporting a record of 22-13-2 (46 points) through 37 games, while the Canucks have a record of 15-16-5 for 35 points through 36 games.

Tonight’s game see’s Jacob Markstrom get the call for Vancouver while Jake Allen starts for the Blues.

While everyone has their own opinions on how the Sedin’s are playing, let’s not forget that at present they are the “face” of the team and say what you will, they can still dazzle the opposition in areas of the ice.

Photo From https://yaletowninfo.com/

Daniel and Henrik have both played 36 games with Daniel having a record of 8-16-24, while Henrik has managed 2-24-26 also through 36 games.

This is the second of three meeting for the two clubs this season with the next and final meeting taking place in St. Louis March 23rd.

The Canucks have a record of 6-9-3 against the Western Conference and a record of 2-3-2 against Central division rivals.

Canuck sensation rookie Brock Boeser currently ranks 5th in the NHL goal scoring race leading all rookies with 19 points and it’s also worthy of knowing that he has scored 19.6% of the Canucks 97 goals this season to date.

This is listed as the second highest percentage of team goals scored behind Alex Ovechkin who has a stat of 20.9%.

Goaltending plays a huge role to the  success of any team and one stat worthy to know is that Markstroms shutout on December 5th was his first career shutout in 129 games through 115 starts over parts of his eight NHL seasons.

One stat worth knowing is that the record for most games in an NHL career without a shutout is by former New West Bruins player Pokey Reddick listed at 132 while playing for Winnipeg, Edmonton and the Panthers dating from 1986-94.

Reddick also played in the WHL for the Nanaimo Islanders during the 1981-82 season and the following season he moved to play out of Queens Park for the Bruins.

The Canucks got a fast start in the second with Boeser collecting his 20th of the season tying the game at 1, bringing the sellout crowd to life.

For those who have not seen him play yet, his talent speaks for  itself and for a young up and coming star, not only can he read the play well, he  has that game sense that some never get.

The Blues were close to regaining the lead at the 6:14 mark when Stastny was sent in along only to be stoned by Markstrom with no chance of any rebound.

The second saw both teams have more quality chances only to be turned aside, while there was only one goal in the second that saw the Blues take a 2-1 lead to the dressing room after two, with the Blues outshooting the Canucks by a narrow 20-18 margin.

With the Canucks continuing to press and one could say that it was Markstrom and the two posts that kept them in the game, for all three periods.

The third saw the Canucks throw everything they could at the Blues, but try as they might chances on this night were far and few between.

The Blues on the other hand had numerous with shots going off the post, the crossbar, feet and/or any other object that was in their way creating far too many chances.

I had the luxury to sit beside two reporters attending the game from St. Louis and they were mentioning that this game was no different than the past few the Blues have had.

Meaning they are unable to jump on any chances they were given, despite the fact that Boeser grabbed his team-leading 20th goal of the season coming up on the losing end of a loss.

The Blues come to town on back end of a dismal road trip through Canada’s West, despite the fact that the Canucks are 1-7-1 over the past nine games being outscored by a 44-20 margin.

While some are blaming the loss square on the shoulders, it’s that those putting the blame on him  have never played goal and think what they might, he’s not the only player on the ice.

Let’s reflect on rookie Boeser at the young age of 20 currently leads all NHL rookies in goals and is listed as the fastest Canucks rookie to ever reach this 20 goal status.

In his 43 games to date it should be noted that he has scored 24 times and reflecting back it should be noted that in the 1991-92 campaign it took Pavel Bure 49 games to score 20 goals.

We should remember that Ben Hutton returned to the line-up after he sat out two straight games and was listed as a healthy scratch.

Regardless of the outcome the game was entertaining, with both clubs have numerous chances.

The Canucks are off for the Christmas break and return to the ice to face the Blackhawks December 28th.