San Jose Sharks vs. Vancouver Canucks Pick & Prediction MARCH 23rd 2023
The San Jose Sharks will try to snap a seven-game losing streak on Thursday night when they visit the Vancouver Canucks.
Both teams are well out of the Stanley Cup playoff picture. San Jose (19-37-15, 53 points) has the worst record in the Western Conference and is just two points ahead of Columbus in the battle for the No. 1 spot in the NHL Draft Lottery on May 8. Vancouver (31-34-5, 67 points), which is 16 points behind Winnipeg for the final wild-card spot, has the eighth-worst record in the league.
Jacob Hoffman
With the likely first pick 17-year-old center Connor Bedard of the Regina Pats of the Western Hockey League -- considered a generational talent and the most-hyped prospect since Connor McDavid -- there has been speculation that some teams might want to tank down the stretch to increase their odds in the draft lottery.
Vancouver center J.T. Miller, however, wants none of that talk.
The Canucks are 7-3-0 in their last 10 games and come in off a 4-3 loss to the Pacific Division-leading Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday. The Canucks fell behind 2-0 in the first period but showed no signs of quitting with Miller garnering two goals, including one on a penalty shot after getting slashed by Shea Theodore on a short-handed breakaway in the second period.
"I don't know what that mindset is of not going hard and trying to get a high pick," Miller said. "We're trying to win games, and if we win a lot, we can get used to winning habits and a winning culture before next year."
Miller stressed it was more important to set the tone with a winning atmosphere heading into the 2023-24 season than it was to tank games to try to land Bedard.
"It's too bad we're not in the (playoff) hunt, but these games are really important," Miller said. "Our starts to the (season) have been so poor and we're trying to get a head start to know what the standard is. Everybody should be coming into camp with a clear mind of what's expected."
Vancouver overcame a poor first period against Vegas that saw the Canucks outshot 14-5 and commit two costly turnovers that set up goals to give the Golden Knights the early lead. But Vancouver made Vegas sweat a little after Phillip Di Giuseppe put in a rebound of a Miller tip to cut it to 4-3 with 8:17 to go.
San Jose, thanks to James Reimer's strong goaltending performance, comes in off a tough 5-4 overtime loss at Edmonton on Monday. The Oilers needed Mattias Ekholm's goal with 3:47 remaining to force overtime, where Darnell Nurse scored on a breakaway with just 15 seconds left to win it.
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Reimer finished with a season-high 47 saves, including a highlight-reel special when he dove across the crease to stop Leon Draisaitl's shot at an open right side of the net in the final minute of regulation.
"We've seen that move before," San Jose coach David Quinn said. "They're one of the best teams in the league who have an awful lot of firepower, and I thought we competed. Our goalie played great and I thought we did a lot of good things tonight. It just wasn't enough."
--Field Level Media
San Jose Sharks vs. Vancouver Canucks Recap MAR 23TH 2023
J.T. Miller, Andrei Kuzmenko, Conor Garland, Dakota Joshua and Phillip Di Giuseppe each had a goal and an assist as the host Vancouver Canucks cruised to a 7-2 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Thursday night.
Vasily Podkolzin and Sheldon Dries also scored goals for Vancouver (32-34-5, 69 points) which defeated the Sharks for the ninth straight time dating back to Jan. 18, 2020.
Thatcher Demko finished with 17 saves to improve to 8-0-0 in eight career games against San Jose. Tyler Myers added two assists.
Tomas Hertl and Andrew Agozzino scored for San Jose (19-38-15, 53 points) which lost its eighth straight game (0-5-3) and for the 13th in its last 14 games. James Reimer stopped just 14 of 21 shots.
Vancouver jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first 8:17 of the opening period. Miller got the first goal at the 6:15 mark when he intercepted a Hertl pass at the blue line and skated in and fired a wrist shot past Reimer's blocker side for his 29th goal of the season and fourth in three games.
Kuzmenko followed at the 8:17 mark with a backhand shot from the slot past Reimer's glove side for his 35th goal, a franchise record for most goals by a Canuck in a first NHL season. Elias Pettersson picked up the primary assist on the play to increase his career-high point streak to 10 games.
The Sharks cut it to 2-1 just 77 seconds later when Hertl took a saucer pass from Erik Karlsson in the left circle and fired a wrist shot inside the near post for his 20th goal, the fifth time in his career he's tallied 20 goals in a season.
Vancouver extended the lead to 3-1 on Joshua's backhand goal with just 0.4 seconds left in the period.
Garland made it 4-1 midway through the second period with his first goal in 14 games with a backhand shot into an open right side of the net off a crossing pass by Myers.
The Sharks cut it to 4-2 midway through the third period on a shorthanded goal by Agozzino, but Vancouver came right back to break the game open with two goals in the span of 78 seconds. Podkolzin got the first one just 15 seconds after Agozzino's goal with a wrist shot from the high slot over Reimer's left shoulder. Di Giuseppe followed when he redirected Quinn Hughes' slap shot from the left point for his fifth goal of the season.
Dries finished the scoring with a shorthanded goal with 13.5 seconds left.
--Field Level Media
- NHL
