VANCOUVER CANUCKS NOTES:
MATCH-UP INFO
• Tonight marks the second of four meetings between the Canucks and Sharks this season: Nov. 27 (4-3 OTW), Dec. 7 (away), Dec. 27 (home), and Mar. 23 (home).
• The Canucks are 62-55-9-7 all-time against the Sharks, including a 34-29-5-2 record on the road.
• Vancouver is 8-2-0 in their last 10 games against San Jose (5-0-0 in their last 5).
• Among active Canucks skaters, Oliver Ekman-Larsson leads the team in points (8-17-25) and games played (53) against the Sharks.
• Ilya Mikheyev has four career points (2-2-4) in two games against the Sharks.
• J.T. Miller has 18 career points (6-12-18) in 16 games against San Jose.
• Quinn Hughes has eight career points (3-5-8) in eight games against San Jose.
• Spencer Martin is 0-1-1 in two career games against the Sharks, posting a 4.02 GAA and .857 SV%.
• Collin Delia has yet to face San Jose in his career.
QUICK NUMBERS
• Bo Horvat has seven goals and 10 points (7-3-10) in his last 10 games and is third in the NHL in goals scored this season with 20, three back of league-leader Jason Robertson (23).
• Quinn Hughes has 24 points (0-24-24) this season and leads the NHL in assists among defencemen (24 in 22 GP).
• Elias Pettersson leads the team with the most multi-point games this season at 10 (10-15-25 in those 10 games).
• J.T. Miller has 11 points (2-9-11) in his last 10 games.
• Luke Schenn holds the NHL all-time record of most hits (2,948) by a defenceman.
LAST MEETING – NOV. 27/22: VAN 4 at SJS 3 (OT)
Kyle Burroughs opened the scoring 7:26 into the first period, his second goal of the season…Bo Horvat and J.T. Miller picked up the assists…Ilya Mikheyev tied the game at two 8:14 into the third period…the assists went to Andrei Kuzmenko and Elias Pettersson…Pettersson gave the Canucks their second lead of the game just 2:30 later…Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Mikheyev recorded the helpers…Kuzmenko struck just 1:12 into overtime to propel the Canucks to victory…Miller and Quinn Hughes were credited with the assists…Luke Schenn and Dakota Joshua tied for the team lead in hits with four…Burroughs matched the team’s season-high with five blocked shots…Thatcher Demko made 32 saves.
2022.23 TEAM RANKS
VAN SJS
Goals For/Game 3.50 (t-7th) 2.89 (23rd)
Goals Against/Game 3.85 (30th) 3.57 (23rd)
Power Play % 26.9 (7th) 21.1 (t-20th)
Penalty Kill % 68.8 (29th) 86.3 (1st)
Penalty Min./Game 11:25 (t-24th) 7:55 (6th)
*Rankings are accurate as of 5:00pm PT on December 6
LAST GAME PLAYED – DEC. 5/22: VAN 7 vs MTL 6 (OT)
Conor Garland scored the Canucks first goal at 16:44 in the second period…Andrei Kuzmenko recorded his 11th assist of the season…Ilya Mikheyev doubled the Canucks score with his first goal of the evening 1:44 later…Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser were credited with the assists…Bo Horvat opened the scoring in the third with his 20th of the season…Nils Höglander and Riley Stillman tallied assists on the play…Less than two minutes later, Mikheyev scored his second goal to tie the game at 4-4…Pettersson and Stillman both recorded their second assists of the night…Jack Studnicka scored his second goal of the season, unassisted, to take the lead…Kuzmenko scored the Canucks sixth goal at 18:35 in the third to send the game into overtime…J.T. Miller and Quinn Hughes were credited with the assists…Pettersson scored the game winning goal 13 seconds into overtime, unassisted…Collin Delia registered his first win as a Canuck, stopping 15 shots in relief…Mikheyev led the team in shots (4)…Eleven Canucks registered points in the contest, including four Canucks who had multi-point games.
LAST 5 vs SAN JOSE
• Nov. 27/22: VAN 4 at SJS 3 (OT)
• Apr. 9/22: VAN 5 vs SJS 1
• Feb. 17/22: VAN 5 at SJS 4 (OT)
• Dec. 16/21: VAN 5 at SJS 2
• Jan. 29/20: VAN 5 at SJS 2
PERISTENT PETEY
Scoring one goal and tallying two assists on Dec. 5 vs MTL, Elias Pettersson registered 32 points in (12-20-32) 26 games played, becoming the first Canuck to reach this mark in 26 or fewer games played since Daniel and Henrik Sedin in 2010.11 (30 points in 24 GP). Monday night also marked Pettersson’s team-leading 10th multi-point game this season and his 20th career 3+ point game, tying him with Stan Smyl (1978-1983) for fifth-most 3+ point games in a player’s first five NHL seasons in franchise history.
• Scoring at 3-on-3 in overtime on Dec. 5 vs MTL, Pettersson tallied his 12th goal of the season, all of which have come at even strength. He ranks tied for second among NHL skaters for most even strength goals this season (12), trailing Jason Robertson (17).
LEADING BY EXAMPLE
Scoring his team-leading 20th goal on Dec. 5 vs MTL, Bo Horvat is the fourth skater in Canucks history to score as many goals in the team’s first 26 games of the season. Horvat is only the third player this season to reach the 20-goal mark (Robertson, 23; McDavid, 22).
• With 34 goals in 44 games since March 9, 2022, Horvat has the highest goals per game (0.77) in the League during that stretch (minimum 5 GP).
• Earlier this season, Horvat became the first player in franchise history to have five multi-goal games in the first 13 games.
BELIEVING IN BRUCE
With the team’s 7-6 OT victory on Dec. 5 vs MTL, the Canucks overcame a 4-0 deficit for only the third time in franchise history to secure a 4-goal comeback win (Jan. 16/73 vs TOR 6-4 W & Oct. 15/71 vs CAL 9-6 W). Coincidentally, Bruce Boudreau also earned his third career win in a game where his team trailed by four-plus goals (Dec. 23/08 w/ WSH & Mar. 31/14 w/ ANA).
• With the team’s 7-6 OT victory on Dec. 5 vs MTL, Bruce Boudreau (43 wins) is now only one win away from tying Hal Laycoe (44) for 12th place on the Canucks all-time coaches wins list.
PUTTING THE ‘SUDDEN’ IN SUDDEN DEATH
Elias Pettersson’s game-winning overtime goal on Dec. 5 vs MTL came just 13 seconds into OT, making it the fastest goal to start a regular season overtime period in Canucks history. The previous record was held by Dixon Ward who scored 15 seconds into OT on Nov. 29/93.
PRODUCTION LINE
With multi-point efforts on Dec. 5 vs MTL, Andrei Kuzmenko, Elias Pettersson, and Ilya Mikheyev have collectively tallied 33 points in the team’s last 10 games (15-18-33). Between the trio, they have had 22 multi-point efforts this season including three games (Oct. 27 @ SEA, Nov. 27 @ SJS, Dec. 5 vs MTL) where all three skaters put up at least two points.
SCHENN’S GREATEST HITS
Recording six hits on Dec. 3 vs ARI, Luke Schenn claimed the NHL all-time record for most hits by a defenceman (2,948), surpassing Brooks Orpik (2,946), and is now ranked sixth all-time among all skaters. Schenn has collected the second-most hits in the NHL this season (108 in 26 GP). On Nov. 12 at TOR, Schenn matched a franchise record with 12 hits in a game and became the first player in NHL history to record at least three games with 12+ hits in his career.
*The NHL began tracking hits in 2005.06.
POWER PLAY PROWESS
Netting 22 power play goals on 70 opportunities in their last 20 games played, including a tally on the man-advantage on Dec. 5 vs MTL, the Canucks’ power play ranks second in the NHL since Oct. 24, producing at a rate of 31.4%.
HUGHES’ HELPING HANDS
• With two assists on Dec. 3 vs ARI, Quinn Hughes surpassed Doug Lidster for fourth most multi-assist games among defencemen in Canucks history at 35 games.
• Collecting his 20th assist of the season in 17 games on Nov. 26 at VGK, Hughes trailed only Henrik Sedin (21 assists in 2010.11) for most assists by a Canucks player through their first 17 games of a season.
o Previously, on Nov. 21 vs VGK, Hughes passed Sami Salo for sole possession of 9th place on the Canucks all-time assists list among defencemen (164) in 346 fewer games played. Hughes is now one assist away from tying Rick Lanz (171) for 8th.
SAN JOSE SHARKS NOTES:
LAST GAME
Game 28 – 12/4 – SJS 3 at BUF 6…Nick Bonino (1g, 0a) and Oskar Lindblom (1g, 0a) scored their first goals of the season. Logan Couture (0g, 1a) now has five points (2g, 3a) in his last five games. Ray Tufts, San Jose’s Head Athletic Trainer, worked his 2,000th NHL game.
SJ Goals: Bonino (1), Labanc (5 pp), Lindblom (1)
SF: 29
SA: 38
SJ PP: 1/1
SJ PK: 2/4
W: Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen
L: Dell
RECENT TRANSACTIONS
12/6 Placed F Matt Nieto on IR; recalled F C.J. Suess from the San Jose Barracuda
12/6 Assigned G Aaron Dell to the San Jose Barracuda; recalled G Eetu Makiniemi from the San Jose Barracuda
12/1 Assigned F Jeff Viel to the San Jose Barracuda
11/28 Placed G James Reimer on IR; recalled F Jeff Viel from the San Jose Barracuda
11/27 Recalled D Scott Harrington from the San Jose Barracuda
11/26 Recalled G Aaron Dell from the San Jose Barracuda; placed D Mario Ferraro on IR
11/25 Re-assigned G Aaron Dell to the San Jose Barracuda
11/23 Activated D Radim Simek from IR; placed F Nico Sturm on IR
11/22 Recalled G Aaron Dell from the San Jose Barracuda
11/18 Assigned D Scott Harrington to the San Jose Barracuda
11/14 Placed D Radim Simek on IR; recalled D Nick Cicek from the San Jose Barracuda
TONIGHT’S OPPONENT – VANCOUVER CANUCKS
San Jose looks to bounce back from back-to-back losses on Dec. 3 and 4 with game two of their season series against the Vancouver Canucks. The Pacific Division foe defeated the Sharks, 4-3 in overtime, on Nov. 27 at SAP Center at San Jose. Four separate Canucks skaters (Andrei Kuzmenko, Ilya Mikheyev, J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson) all notched two points in the contest. The Canucks enter tonight’s matchup coming off a wild 7-6 overtime win against the Montreal Canadiens, where Vancouver erased a four-goal first period deficit and a 6-5 third period deficit before winning just 13 seconds into overtime. Elias Pettersson emerged as the overtime hero and continues to lead the Canucks in points, while Bo Horvat has already amassed 20 goals this season and Quinn Hughes leads League defensemen in assists with 24. Vancouver is 7-3-0 in their last 10 games.
STORYLINES
IN RARE COMPANY…Sharks defenseman Erik Karlsson continues to lead NHL defensemen in goals and points, and still stands as
the only defenseman this season to cross the 10-goal threshold. In November, Karlsson became the first Sharks defenseman to reach
20 points in a calendar month with a position-leading 21 points (6g, 15a) in just 15 games. He has factored into 34 of 81 goals scored
for San Jose this season (42.0%). Per NHL PR, the highest-ever rate in the NHL’s modern era (since the 1943-44 season) at which a
defenseman factored into team goals for a season was Bobby Orr at 43.3% in 1969-70.
HERTL HEATING UP…Tomas Hertl scored both of San Jose’s goals in their 2-5 loss in Ottawa on Dec. 3, four days after potting a
pair in a shutout win over Montreal. The forward has now found the scoresheet in 13 of the past 18 games with seven multi-point efforts
in that span. Hertl registered a season-high three points in San Jose’s 11/5 game against the Anaheim Ducks, including a goal and two
assists and has 22 points (6g, 16a) in the team’s previous 21 games dating back to October 20 at the New York Rangers. He had goals
in three consecutive contests for the first time this season from 11/5 – 11/11 and notched his 400th career NHL point on November 11
with an assist. His .89 point-per-game pace (25 in 28) this season is the second highest single-season pace of his career.
IT’S TIMO TIME…Timo Meier ranks T-3rd on the Sharks with 24 points and leads the team with 11 goals since Nov. 1. The winger took sole possession of 10th on the Sharks’ all-time list in goals with a strike on Nov. 10 and ranks second on the Sharks with 12 markers on the season. He logged a five-game goal-scoring streak (11/1 – 11/11, 6g) and found the back of the net in eight of 15 November games. The Swiss forward currently leads the NHL with 132 shots on goal. Last season, Meier rifled off 326 shots on net, the most by any Sharks forward (third most by a Sharks player) in a single season.
CAPTAIN COUTURE…Logan Couture took the team goal-scoring lead with his 13th of the season on Nov. 29 at Montreal, breaking a tie with Timo Meier. The captain posted a career-long five-game goal streak which ended on Nov. 27, finishing one game behind San Jose’s team record of six games. Couture has lit the lamp in nine of the past 14 contests with five multi-point efforts and 16 points (9g, 7a) in that span and he totaled 16 points (9g, 7a) in 14 November contests.
SUPREME SPECIAL TEAMS…The Sharks’ power play has been hot of late, cashing in on 13 of 46 (28.3%) trips to the man-advantage since the start of a six-game home stand on October 25, good for sixth in the NHL in that span. San Jose has gone empty in just eight games in that stretch, including Nov. 10 at St. Louis and Nov. 30 at Toronto when the team had zero power play opportunities and Nov. 17 against Detroit and Nov. 19 against the New York Rangers when they had just one. San Jose’s penalty kill killed off its first 22 penalties of the season before finally allowing a power play goal on Oct. 22 at New Jersey. The Sharks allowed three power play goals on Saturday in Ottawa for the first time in over a year (Feb. 13, 2021 vs VGK) and allowed two the next night but still enter tonight’s contest with the league’s top PK unit at 86.3%. Elsewhere on the road trip, the Sharks posted stout 6-for-6 and 3-for-3 efforts against Montreal and Toronto, respectively. The Maple Leafs had a scorching 28.3% power play at home this season entering Nov. 30’s game. San Jose has been operating at a league-best 86.7% shorthanded efficiency since the 2022 NHL All-Star break, and the Sharks have the league’s second-best penalty kill percentage since the start of the 2020-21 season (83.6-percent).
COMEBACK KIDS…The Sharks overcame a two-goal deficit en route to a 3-2 shootout victory on November 13 at Minnesota, the team’s first multi-goal comeback win of the season and first since 4/24/22 at Vegas, a 5-4 shootout decision. San Jose has come from behind in four of eight wins on the year, including each contest of a three-game win streak Friday (11/11) at Dallas (trailed 1-0), Sunday (11/13) at Minnesota (trailed 2-0) and Tuesday (11/15) at Vegas (trailed 1-0 and 2-1). San Jose was the first team to earn a win over Vegas when trailing after two periods on the year (the Knights had been 7-0-0). Per NHL PR, the three-game road trip was the first time since March 14-17, 2018 that the Sharks earned three consecutive come-from-behind wins in one road stint.
REIM TIME…Sharks goaltender James Reimer earned his first shutout of the season on Oct. 23 with a 30-save performance at Philadelphia. Reimer’s shutout, his fifth as a Shark, moved him into a tie with Aaron Dell for eighth on the franchise’s all-time shutouts list. He recorded his third 41-save effort of the season on Saturday (11/19) against the New York Rangers, including saves on the first 40 shots he faced in the game. Reimer also owns a .937 shorthanded save percentage since joining the Sharks at the start of the 2021-22 season, the best in the NHL in that span (min. 10 games played) and the best two-season stretch by a goaltender since the NHL began tracking the statistic in 1997-98 (min. 30 games played, second best is Cory Schneider from 2010-12 with a .936 SV% in 58 GP).
GRIER’S GAMEPLAN…On July 5, Sharks president Jonathan Becher and assistant general manager Joe Will introduced Mike Grier as the team’s fifth General Manager and first black general manager in NHL history. The 47-year-old appeared in 221 games with the Sharks from 2006 through 2008 as part of a 14-season, 1,060 game NHL playing career. Just two days later, Grier was with the team as they selected center Filip Bystedt with the 27th overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft. On July 13, the Sharks traded longtime defenseman Brent Burns and signed Matt Benning, Oskar Lindblom, Markus Nutivaara and Nico Sturm on the first day of free agency. A full list of players under NHL contract that have joined the organization since July 5 is below:
Erik Karlsson’s overtime game-winning goal on Oct. 20 at New York (Rangers), assisted by Timo Meier and Tomas Hertl, was the
first goal the Sharks scored this season that did not feature at least one of Grier’s offseason additions.
QUINN FOR THE WIN…On July 26, Grier introduced David Quinn as Head Coach of the Sharks and later named Scott Gordon, Ryan Warsofsky and Brian Wiseman as Assistant Coaches, Thomas Speer NHL Goaltending Coach and Nick Gialdini Video Coach. Quinn, who most recently served as head coach for Team USA at both the 2022 Winter Olympics and 2022 World Championship, spent three seasons as head coach of the New York Rangers from 2018 to 2021, earning a 96-87-25 record. In his three years, the Rangers held the league’s eighth-best power-play percentage (22.1%), ranked seventh in team blocked shots (4,195) and takeaways (2,244), and were tied for tenth in wins when trailing first (52). Adam Fox, who made his NHL debut under Quinn in 2019-20, was awarded the Norris Trophy following the 2020-21 season. Quinn’s first NHL win was a 3-2 overtime victory against the Sharks at Madison Square Garden with the Rangers on Oct. 11, 2018. His first NHL win with the Sharks was a 3-2 overtime victory against the Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Oct. 21, 2022. The 56-year-old recorded his 100th career NHL win on 11/11 at Dallas, a 5-4 final.
