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Canwest News Service
TV:
TSN
Radio:
TEAM 1040 AM
The setup
Two masked marvels going mano-a-mano for the Team Canada starter's job. Roberto Luongo and Martin Brodeur play it down, but each of these proud competitors wants to prove he's better.
Canucks last game
The Canucks were brilliant in shutting down the NHL's best line at the moment, but they allowed San Jose's pluggers to score in a 4-2 loss to the Sharks on Sunday at GM Place.
Devils last game
Brian Rolston and Patrik Elias were each 2-2-4 as New Jersey won its third straight, 6-1 over the visiting Islanders. But the Devs lost defenceman David Clarkson for up to six weeks with a broken leg.
INJURIES:
Canucks: LW Demitra (shoulder); RW Grabner (ankle). Devils: LW Langenbrunner (game-time decision); C Zubrus (knee); D Martin (arm); D Oduya (groin); RW Clarkson (ankle); C Rob Niedermayer (upper body).
Three things to watch
1 Wood serves him well
Look for Kyle Wellwood's name in the Canucks scoring stats and you find him two points behind Willie Mitchell, one back of Daniel Sedin (who's played 14 fewer games). He's behind four D-men and has Michael Grabner, who played nine games before breaking an ankle, nipping at his heels. But Wellwood now has five points, two goals and three assists, in his past five games. All since going back to a wooden blade.
2 By the numbers
There's some give and take when it comes to the Devils and Canucks scoring and keeping the puck out of the net. The Canucks score more 5-on-5 (3.00 to 2.71 a game), the Canucks power play is a fair bit better than the Devils (24.3 to 21.5 per cent), while New Jersey's penalty kill is significantly better than Vancouver (24.3 versus 21.5). But the biggest difference? New Jersey allows a league-low 2.08 goals against per game; the Canucks are 10th at 2.62.
3 Time for Kes to light torch
The last time Ryan Kesler scored a goal, the Olympic torch had just landed from Athens and was setting out on the first leg of its 45,000-kilometre journey around Canada. That was Nov. 1. Since then the torch has travelled about 20,000 kilometres, Kesler has skated several kilometres on his own, flown thousands more and played 11 games. But he does have 11 assists over that span.
