Luongo Night and a Panthers-Canucks Game Will Make for a Tremendous Thursday Evening
Luongo #Luongo
After taking care of one of the Florida teams on Tuesday night, the Vancouver Canucks now look ahead to Thursday’s matchup with the Florida Panthers as they make their only trip to Rogers Arena this season.
Thursday is set to be a special night as Roberto Luongo will join greats Orland Kurtenbach, Kirk McLean, Thomas Gradin, Harold Snepsts, Pat Quinn, Mattias Ohlund, and Alex Burrows in the Canucks’ Ring of Honour.
Luongo played 448 games with the Canucks and held a .919% save percentage through his eight seasons in a Canucks jersey. It’s sure to be a great night and please note that doors will open at 5:30. There will be Luongo bobbleheads, a pregame ceremony with the goaltenders taking the faceoff, and much more fun trinkets around the arena throughout the night.
After the Luongo celebrations, we will have a hockey game to play and the Panthers are coming into town after struggling against the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday night; falling by a score of 4-0.
We saw the Canucks come out of Florida with a win earlier in the season. They picked up a pair of power play goals en route to a 5-3 win all the way back on October 21st. Elias Pettersson, Andrei Kuzmenko, and J.T. Miller each picked up two points in the game and Casey DeSmith stopped 33 of the 36 shots that he faced to secure his third win as a Canuck.
Tuesday’s game aside, the Panthers have been one of the NHL’s top teams this season. They currently sit third in the Eastern Conference with a 17-9-2 record for 36 points through 28 games.
The Panthers’ strong record starts between the pipes with Sergei Bobrovsky. The 35-year-old netminder has put up a 2.45 goals-against average and picked up two shutouts this season.
We’ve also seen the Panthers have success away from home this season. They have an 8-5-2 road record and have outscored their opponents 42-36 in their 15 road games this season.
Sam Reinhart is the leading offensive threat for the Panthers this season. He’s eighth in scoring with 17 goals and 20 assists for 37 points through 28 games. The BC-born Reinhart has done a lot of his damage on the power play, seven of his 17 goals have come on the man-advantage. Reinhart is averaging 20:28 of ice time per game and will play right wing on the first line while also killing penalties and as we mentioned earlier, playing on the power play.
Quick hits on the competition:
After Brock Boeser’s hat trick on Tuesday night that brought him to 21 goals, he now sits tied for first in the league for goals with Auston Matthews.
Quinn Hughes had his ninth multi-point game of the season on Tuesday night. Hughes was in on three goals in the 4-1 win on Tuesday. His three assists take his points total up to 39 on the season, which is tied up for third in the league with David Pastrnak, Artemi Panarin, and Nathan MacKinnon.
Nils Höglander is now on a four-game points streak. He’s worked well with his new linemates Brock Boeser and J.T. Miller.
“He’s just a quick little guy,” said Boeser about Höglander playing on his line. “He knows what he needs to do on our line. He’s done a great job at getting in on the forecheck and creating those turnovers and even when we get the puck and get some zone time, he’s so good at protecting it down there. So, he’s been great and hopefully, we can keep it going.”
The Höglander-Miller-Boeser trio has combined for 17 points over their last four games and has done it in a role where they are matching up against the opposition’s top line and being trusted with protecting leads at the end of the game.
Thursday will be a battle between one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference and one of the best in the West. It’s going to be a wonderful night as the organization and fan base come together to celebrate Roberto Luongo heading into the Ring of Honour and we’ve got a great matchup on the ice to make Thursday night at Rogers Arena potentially one of the highlights of the regular season.
The game is scheduled for 7:00 pm PT. You can watch it on Sportsnet or listen to the radio call on Sportsnet 650 with the wonderful Brendan Batchelor providing play-by-play.