DUCKS (11-8-4) at CANUCKS (10-11-2)
10 p.m. ET; SN360, KCOP-13, NHL.TV
Ducks team scope
Goalie John Gibson will start for the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday. He earned a second straight start after he had his best game of the season against the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday, making 39 saves in a 2-1 victory. "They want the net, they want to control the net, and the only way you can control the net is when you are winning hockey games and forcing coaches to make tough decisions," coach Randy Carlyle said. "We feel we have a 1A and 1B tandem in net, and we're comfortable playing either guy." Gibson is 7-7-3 with a .912 save percentage in 17 games; backup Jonathan Bernier is 4-1-1 with a .933 save percentage in nine games. Anaheim's win against Montreal was its first this season when scoring fewer than three goals. It also was the Ducks' second straight win after going 0-2-1 the previous three games, their worst stretch during an 8-4-2 November. "It's early still, but over the course of the year, we want to continue to get better and we've played a couple solid games here and we want to continue that," center Ryan Kesler said. The focus to start the three-game trip through Western Canada includes a hard forecheck against the Vancouver Canucks' young defense. "We'll try to play in their end and extend their shifts so they are chasing us around," defenseman Kevin Bieksa said.
Canucks team scope
The Canucks will try to stay on a roll, but their young defense is expecting a different challenge from the Ducks' big forwards. Vancouver defeated the Minnesota Wild 5-4 on Tuesday despite missing top defenseman Alexander Edler, who broke his finger Saturday, and his regular partner, Christopher Tanev, who remains out because of an ankle injury. It was the first time the Canucks have won consecutive games since opening the season with four straight victories, but the hard-forechecking Ducks might be harder on what is now the youngest defense in the NHL. "If I am stationary, they are obviously going to take advantage of my size," said 5-foot-10 rookie Troy Stecher, who had two assists against the Wild. "Use my feet, make sure I am skating. If I am doing that, it makes it harder to hit me." After struggling to score during a nine-game losing streak (0-8-1) through Nov. 7, the Canucks have 31 goals in going 6-3-1 in the past 10 games. Second-line center Bo Horvat leads the Canucks with eight goals and 16 points and credits chemistry with linemates Alexandre Burrows, who has five points the past five games, and Sven Baertschi, who returned after missing two games to score the winning goal against the Wild. "Just knowing where each other is, knowing what we have to do each and every game to be successful," Horvat said.
Ducks projected lineup
Rickard Rakell -- Ryan Getzlaf -- Corey Perry
Andrew Cogliano -- Ryan Kesler -- Jakob Silfverberg
Nick Ritchie -- Antoine Vermette -- Ondrej Kase
Ryan Garbutt -- Logan Shaw -- Chris Wagner
Hampus Lindholm -- Josh Manson
Shea Theodore -- Kevin Bieksa
John Gibson
Jonathan Bernier
Scratched: Korbinian Holzer, Jared Boll
Injured: Joseph Cramarossa (lower body), Clayton Stoner (lower body), Nate Thompson (Achilles), Simon Despres (concussion symptoms)
Canucks projected lineup
Daniel Sedin -- Henrik Sedin -- Brandon Sutter
Sven Baertschi -- Bo Horvat -- Alexandre Burrows
Markus Granlund -- Michael Chaput -- Loui Eriksson
Jack Skille -- Brendan Gaunce -- Jayson Megna
Luca Sbisa -- Troy Stecher
Nikita Tryamkin -- Philip Larsen
Scratched: Alex Biega, Joseph Labate
Injured: Alexander Edler (fractured finger), Derek Dorsett (shoulder), Jannik Hansen (fractured rib), Anton Rodin (knee), Christopher Tanev (ankle)
Status report
Tanev and Hansen skated on their own before Canucks practice Wednesday. Coach Willie Desjardins said Tanev was closer to returning but remains at least a week away.
Who's hot
Perry has 12 assists in his past 14 games despite not scoring a goal in 15 games. Linemate Rakell has goals in consecutive games and 13 points in 14 games this season after missing the start of the season because of surgery to remove scar tissue from an appendectomy. … Horvat three goals and seven points during a five-game point streak. Baertschi has two goals and five points in his past three games.
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