HockeyBig early season clash between Canucks, Wings

Beginning of Story Content

Read up on the latest tidbits and trends as Hockey Night in Canada's play-by-play voice Jim Hughson takes you behind the scenes and into Saturday's featured game.

This week's work: Detroit Red Wings at Vancouver Canucks (CBC, CBCSports.ca, 7 p.m. PT/10 p.m. ET)

The Script:

It's an early-season clash of two of the top teams in the Western Conference.

The Hall of Fame weekend late game features a couple of players (Nicklas Lidstrom, Mike Modano) who will eventually be automatic entries and at least half a dozen more who've got a really good shot at getting into the Hall one day.

Vancouver has won five in a row, hasn't lost at home yet and is widely picked as the team to beat in the West. That will come as news to the Wings, who have also had a great start and been the team to beat in the West for a decade or more.

And anyone who's paid attention to the Red Wings in recent years knows how proud they are and how they rise to a challenge. They'll be ready for this game, against a team many think is better than they are.

The match-ups among the forward lines are intriguing.

Both top lines want the puck, keep it when they get it and can put it in the back of the net.

• Detroit: Tomas Holmstrom -- Pavel Datsyuk -- Henrik Zetterberg
• Vancouver: Daniel Sedin -- Henrik Sedin -- Alex Burrows
  

Detroit's second line has a size advantage, but Vancouver's is faster and more prickly.

• Detroit: Johan Franzen -- Valtteri Filppula -- Todd Bertuzzi
• Vancouver: Mason Raymond -- Ryan Kesler -- Mikael Samuelsson
  

The third lines have some speed and are really savvy.

• Detroit: Justin Abdelkader -- Mike Modano -- Dan Cleary
• Vancouver: Raffi Torres -- Manny Malhotra -- Jannik Hansen
  

And both teams have a fourth line they trust, with players who are good defensively and can kill penalties.

• Detroit: Drew Miller or Jiri Hudler -- Darren Helm -- Patrick Eaves
• Vancouver: Peter Schaefer -- Rick Rypien -- Tanner Glass
  

These are two good teams within a point of each other near the top of the West. This could and should be the best game of the night.

Spotlight on:

The Red Wings are an older team now, with 13 players who are 30-plus.

That age and high mileage might be their undoing, but the two 40-year-olds in their  line-up are both worthy of some close scrutiny.

Nicklas Lidstrom has started his 19th season as though it's his fifth, and while coach Mike Babcock has declared once again he'd like to back Lidstrom's ice time off a bit he just can't help himself.

Lidstrom is playing 24:55 per game, more than anyone on the team, and still looks every bit the best defencemen in the league.

Mike Modano is the key to Detroit's solid third line. He admits it's taken a little while to figure out the Detroit system (speed, possession and quick puck movement) but he's already shown he can still skate, and looks energized with a new team and an important new role.

On the hot stove:  

No real pressure on anyone, with both groups off to a good start, but both have some injuries on defence.   

Brian Rafalski is almost back for the Wings, and until he is, Lidstrom is with Jonathan Ericsson, leaving Jakub Kindl and Ruslan Salei as a third pair that could be vulnerable.

In a tight spot Babcock will play Lidstrom with any one of those three to help them along.

Without Dan Hamhuis and Sami Salo, the Canucks are relying on journeymen Andrew Alberts (16:50 per game) and Aaron Rome (17:31). Neither has let the team down over the short term.

Outtakes:

This is just the third game back for Alex Burrows, who was Vancouver's leading goal scorer last season with 35 markers. He's played 15 and a half minutes in each of his first two games and is right back on the top line with the Sedin twins and killing penalties with Kesler.

Kevin Bieksa was the summer's most "traded" Vancouver player, but he didn't end up going anywhere.

And, it turns out, that was a good thing.

Injuries have him playing in the top two pairings. This is a big year for Bieksa, who's an unrestricted free agent when its over. He's been maligned for his inconsistency and has never quite met expectations, but he's also had two traumatic leg injuries in the last three years and missed  a total of 85 games.

Todd Bertuzzi returns to Vancouver playing the best hockey he has in a while.   

The biggest change in his game is defensively, where he isn't the turnover machine he once was.

Big Bert, who starred in Vancouver on a line with Markus Naslund and Brendan Morrison, is coming up on 300 goals and 700 points for his career -- 188 of those goals were scored with Vancouver.

From the stat pack:

Lidstrom is a great player who plays a lot on a great team, so his plus-minus stats are always near the top of the NHL leaderboard.

Here are the top career plus-minus players since the statistic has been kept:

*The best individual season ever recorded was Bobby Orr's plus-124 in 1970-71 with the Bruins.

1. Larry Robinson -- +730

2. Ray Bourque -- +528

3. Wayne Gretzky -- +518

4. Bobby Clarke -- +506

5. Denis Potvin -- +460

6. Bryan Trottier -- +452

7. Brad McCrimmon -- +444

8. Nicklas Lidstrom -- +436

End of Story Content

Back to accessibility links