NHL Preview: Ducks Fly Into Vancouver

Anaheim Ducks (2.95) at Vancouver Canucks (1.42)

After defeating the Edmonton Oilers last night 3-2 after a 10-round shootout, the Ducks will look to make it two straight as they take on the Vancouver Canucks at the Rogers Arena.

It’s been a strange last week for Anaheim, as they both welcomed back and lost a key contributor to their offense. The big return was LW Joffrey Lupul, who had missed almost a full calendar year due to a back injury. Lupul returned this past weekend and looked good last night against Edmonton — he gives Anaheim a bonafide second line (along with Saku Koivu and Jason Blake) behind the dynamic top trio of Bobby Ryan, Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf.

On the flip side of the injury news is Teemu Selanne. Selanne tested his tender groin muscle in the warmup and then gave it a go against Edmonton on Tuesday. He had missed the previous two games after he tweaked it Dec. 1 against Florida and all told, missed five games since he first pulled the groin on Oct. 19 against Columbus. Selanne looked good against Edmonton last night, racking up two assists, but was also skating gingerly at times and may be held out of the lineup tonight for precautionary reasons. Bettors, be sure to check out the Ducks’ lineup card prior to making any wagers on this game — Selanne is a key contributor to the Anaheim attack, averaging a point per game this season.

For Vancouver, they’ll be looking to bounce back from a sluggish 3-2 defeat to St. Louis on Sunday night. RW Mikael Samuelsson (concussion) was injured in Sunday’s game and will be out at least a week. Samuelsson was injured when he collided with St. Louis’ Vladimir Sobotka — his void will be tough to fill as the veteran Swede finished second on the team last year in goals scored, with 30.

Another Canucks player to keep an eye on is defenceman Keith Ballard. Ballard is coming off arguably his two finest games of the season — this included the St. Louis affair, when he caught Blues D Carlo Colaiacovo with a vicious hipcheck. He should be in line to get more minutes now as the Canucks defense situation begins to sort itself out. Andrew Alberts will once again be a healthy scratch tonight and as a result, Ballard could slide into top-four minutes ahead of Kevin Bieksa and Alberts’ replacement, Aaron Rome.

Finally, look for Canucks F Jonas Andersson to make his season debut tonight on the fourth line. Andersson, who’s NHL resume consists of five games played with Nashville a few years ago, was acquired this fall as part of the Shane O’Brien trade. Andersson will replace C Joel Perrault, who was recently sent down to AHL affiliate Manitoba.