NHL Preview: Sharks, Canucks Tangle in Vancouver

San Jose Sharks vs. Vancouver Canucks

Two teams that were expected to contend for the Western Conference crown — San Jose and Vancouver — will do battle tonight at Rogers Arena.  While neither has gotten off to a tremendous start in this 2010-11 NHL regular season campaign, this is still a marquee matchup of two dynamic West Coast offenses that can score with the best of them.

Led by Daniel and Henrik Sedin, Vancouver is coming off a big 4-2 victory over the Colorado Avalanche, a win that put the Canucks atop the Northwest Division standings. The Canucks were led by the Sedin twins but also got a spark from recent AHL call-up Jeff Tambellini, who made his presence felt against Colorado. Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault sent struggling fourth-liner Peter Schaefer to the American Hockey League, possibly ending his NHL career, and immediately inserted Tambellini onto a speedy new second line. He moved winger Alex Burrows, who has been slow to recover from shoulder surgery, back into his familiar top-line spot alongside the Sedins and then demoted winger Mikael Samuelsson from the first to the third line, taking the place of speedster Jannik Hansen, who moved down to Schaefer’s fourth-line spot.

The shakeup seemed to work. Burrows scored just his second goal of the year while Tambellini played an integral role in Ryan Kesler’s insurance marker.

Meanwhile, over in Sharks camp, the team got a key insert performance from one of their players as well — goaltender Antti Niemi. Niemi, who has struggled mightily throughout this season and seemingly lost his grip on the No. 1 job to Antero Nittymaki, gave perhaps his best performance on the season on Wednesday in a 5-2 win over Chicago. Niemi’s numbers were underwhelming before Wednesday’s start — 3-4-1, a 3.64 goals-against average and .886 save percentage — but he stopped 30 of 32 against the visiting Blackhawks to come out on the winning end of an emotional game. Niemi had won the Stanley Cup last year with the ‘Hawks before the team cut him loose due to salary constraints.

The Sharks also got a lift in the Chicago game with the return of defenseman Douglas Murray, who had missed the previous four games because of a lower-body injury he sustained on Nov. 13 against Calgary. Murray had an immediate impact on the Sharks, registering team highs in blocked shots (4) and hits (7) while playing almost 24 minutes in his return.

One final note for this game: It looks as though Canucks D Keith Ballard has finally established a full-time spot in the lineup. Ballard had been all over the map in the early parts of this season — including a stint in the press box as a healthy scratch — but has played well recently and seems to have bumped fellow defenceman Aaron Rome from Vancouver’s top-six.