{coyotes} COYOTES (6-9-1) at CANUCKS (12-5-0)

Friday, 14 November 2014

{coyotes} COYOTES (6-9-1) at CANUCKS (12-5-0)

Marilyn Monroe / Marlon Brando / Matt Damon

Friday, November 14, 2014

10:00 PM ET

COYOTES (6-9-1) at CANUCKS (12-5-0)

TV: FS-A+, SNP

Season series: The Arizona Coyotes won three of five games against the Vancouver Canucks last season. All five games were decided by one goal, including three that went beyond regulation. Forward Antoine Vermette scored six goals for the Coyotes, including a hat trick in a 5-4 overtime loss in Vancouver on Jan. 26 and the game-winner in a 1-0 home victory March 4. Defenseman Kevin Bieksa and forward Chris Higgins led Vancouver with two goals each.

Coyotes team scope: Arizona has followed up its three-game winning streak with three consecutive losses, the latest a 5-3 defeat against the Calgary Flames on Thursday. The Coyotes rallied from a 3-1 deficit to tie the game on Joe Vitale's second goal of the season, but the Flames scored the next two goals to hand the Coyotes a loss in the opener of their three-game trip through Western Canada. Devan Dubnyk might be in goal Friday after Smith took the loss in Calgary. Vermette's power-play goal in the second period ended the Coyotes' 0-for-20 drought with the man advantage. After being ranked as high as second in the NHL, Arizona's power play has dropped to 16th at 19.4 percent. "If the power play's working, something else isn't working," captain Shane Doan said. "When the power play's not working, something else is. We got to get on the same page; everyone's got to get on the same page."

Canucks team scope: Vancouver, which has won five of seven games in November, expects to have forwards Radim Vrbata and Derek Dorsett back in the lineup. Vrbata, who played six seasons with the Coyotes, has sat the past two games because of a leg injury. He has six goals and seven assists in 15 games in his first season with the Canucks. Dorsett has missed two games because of an upper-body injury. Bieksa and defenseman Luca Sbisa sat out practice Thursday. Bieksa wasn't feeling well but is expected to play, coach Willie Desjardins told the Vancouver Sun, and Sbisa is day-to-day after missing the past two games because of a lower-body injury. The Canucks recalled Bobby Sanguinetti from the Utica Comets of the American Hockey League on Thursday, giving them nine defensemen on their roster. The 26-year-old has seven points in 14 games with Utica this season. In 45 NHL games over three seasons with the New York Rangers and Carolina Hurricanes, Sanguinetti has two goals and four assists and is minus-6; he hasn't played in the NHL since April 27, 2013.

Team Stats