TEAM SNAPSHOTS
BLUES The St. Louis Blues kept rolling on Friday, cruising to a 5-0 win in their first-ever visit to meet the Seattle Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena.
Ville Husso turned aside all 27 shots he faced to record his third career shutout while the team contributed goals at even-strength, on the power play, shorthanded and on a penalty shot - a feat accomplished for just the third time in franchise history.
Colton Parayko scored on the penalty shot in the third period - it was the first time a Blues defenseman had ever scored on a penalty shot.
The Blues have won five of their last six games entering Sunday's matchup with the Canucks and are 7-3-0 in their last 10. As of Saturday, St. Louis was second in the Central Division with 53 points, just four behind the Colorado Avalanche.
CANUCKS The Vancouver Canucks sat in last place in the Pacific Division in early December, and that's when they replaced Head Coach Travis Green with Bruce Boudreau.
Since then, Vancouver has gone 10-3-2 - the best mark in the division - and climbed to sixth in the Pacific. As of Saturday, the Canucks (40 points) were right on the heels of Los Angeles (45 points), San Jose (44 points) and Calgary (42 points).
Vancouver is coming off a 2-1 shootout loss to the Florida Panthers on Friday. The club managed to earn a point despite being without forwards J.T. Miller, Brock Boeser, Conor Garland and Bo Horvat - and both goalies - Thatcher Demko and Jaroslav Halak - due to COVID protocols.
Regulations in Canada currently limit fan capacity in Vancouver to 50 percent.
HEAD-TO-HEAD The Blues and Canucks will meet for the first time since the bubble in Edmonton, where Vancouver eliminated the Blues in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, winning the best-of-7 series, 4-2.
Sunday's game will be the first of three meetings between the clubs this season.
The Blues are 5-2-2 in their last nine trips to Vancouver.
MISSING BUCHNEVICH
Pavel Buchnevich returned from the COVID list on Friday and scored in the Blues' 5-0 win, but he won't be available to play Sunday in Vancouver. That's because Canada's COVID restrictions don't allow travelers into the country unless they are at least 10 days removed from a positive test.
Sunday will be Buchnevich's 10th day since his positive test. He will travel to Calgary on Monday and will be available to play against the Flames.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
BLUES Ryan O'Reilly, who ranks fifth in the NHL with 446 face-off wins this season. O'Reilly has been heating up as of late, netting four goals and three assists (seven points) in his last five games.
CANUCKS Quinn Hughes, a 22-year-old defenseman who leads Vancouver with 32 points (two goals, 30 assists) this season. Hughes, a native of Orlando, Fla., was the seventh overall pick of the Canucks in 2018.
BLUE NOTES
Jordan Kyrou is averaging 1.11 points per game this season, the most since Pavol Demitra averaged 1.19 during the 2002-03 campaign… The Blues lead the League with 13 comeback wins when giving up the first goal… Husso is 4-0-0 in his last four starts, posting a 1.25 goals-against average and a .959 save-percentage in that span. Among goaltenders that have played in at least 10 games this season, Husso's 2.02 goals-against average ranks first.
The shorthanded Vancouver Canucks will try to make do with a makeshift lineup again when they host the St. Louis Blues on Sunday.
With goaltenders Thatcher Demko and Jaroslav Halak shelved in COVID-19 protocol, the Canucks turned to Spencer Martin on Friday in a 2-1 shootout loss to the Florida Panthers.
"You're playing a really great team and you're missing a lot of your better players," Canucks coach Bruce Boudreau said. "But everybody stepped up to the plate. Some of the guys played more minutes, I'm sure, than they've ever played at the NHL level before and they played good. When you lose, you lose. But when you get a point out of something like that, that's a really good point."
Demko and Halak are not expected back to face the Blues in the Canucks' second home game since Dec. 14. Key forwards J.T. Miller, Bo Horvat and Conor Garland, who are in the protocol as well, are also not expected to play.
But the Canucks, who are 10-3-2 since Boudreau took over as coach, played the powerful Panthers well while earning a point.
"I hope it gives them belief that when you play the right way -- and we played the right way tonight -- that you can play with anybody," Boudreau said. "That's pretty well what the message is. We played a hungry team tonight."
Florida clobbered Edmonton 6-0 Thursday night in its previous game, but the Canucks kept the Panthers in check to force the shootout.
"In the first and second period, I'm pretty sure we out-chanced them and we could have built the lead up, but just didn't," Boudreau said. "They've got championship-caliber players on their team and they came through at the end."
The Blues, who are 7-2-0 since returning from the NHL's extended holiday break, are much closer to full strength. Winger Pavel Buchnevich is back from COVID-19 protocol, but he will need to sit out this game due to Canadian protocol.
Defenseman Scott Perunovich has also been sidelined in the protocol. Otherwise, the Blues had their full lineup in Seattle when they rolled to a 5-0 victory over the Kraken.
"The first period was good," Blues coach Craig Berube said. "Our special teams were really good in the first. I thought we were energized and skating."
Goaltender Ville Husso (7-2-1, 2.02 goals-against average, .938 save percentage) earned that shutout, so there's a chance Berube will start him again and then use Jordan Binnington (11-8-3, 3.06, .906) for the next game in Calgary. Husso has been pushing Binnington for more playing time.
"I told you we were gonna use both goalies and we're gonna continue to do that," Berube said. "But Ville came off a real good outing (against Nashville) and it was just a decision that I went with."
Berube downplayed talk of a goaltender controversy, adding that Binnington "understands the situation for sure. Binnington's gonna be a big part of whatever we do. I can tell you that right now. Just like Ville Husso is. Binner, he's worked hard in practice and he'll be ready to go when he gets the call again."
This will be the first meeting between the Canucks and Blues this season.
