RECENT RUN
The Canucks, who lost their first game of the season Saturday at home to Tampa, have won both their road games, beating Calgary and Edmonton. They have scored six road goals — two of them empty-netters — and only allowed two … The Stars, 2-1-2, are coming off a 6-5 overtime loss at home to Philadelphia in which they squandered 4-2 and 5-4 leads. They have lost both their home games. The other was a 3-2 shootout defeat to Chicago.
WHO’S HOT?
Canuck G Ryan Miller is a perfect 3-0-0 with a 1.95 GAA, .927 save percentage, one shutout and one shootout victory … LW Daniel Sedin has points in all four games (1-6-7) … The line of Sedin-Sedin-Vrbata has collected 18 points in four games and has 36 shots on goal … Stars forwards Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn and ex-Senator captain Jason Spezza — now playing together — are all off to excellent starts. Seguin is 4-4-8 while Spezza is 1-6-7 and Benn 3-3-6.
WHO’S NOT?
Canucks grinders Derek Dorsett, Shawn Matthias and Jannik Hansen have yet to collect a point this season and have just eight shots on goal … Canuck centremen ranked a dismal 28th in the faceoff dot at 46.4 per cent before Monday’s action. The Stars weren’t much better, ranking 27th at 46.5 per cent … The Stars were even worse in penalty kill percentage, ranking 28th, with six goals allowed on 21 opposition attempts (71.4 per cent).
HEAD TO HEAD
The Tortorella-coached Canucks were dreadful against Dallas last season, losing all three games by a combined 12-3 margin. In Dallas, they were beaten 6-1 and 4-1. Tyler Seguin feasted on the Canucks in the three-game series with eight points and a plus-6 rating. Jamie Benn had five points and was plus-5 while goalie Kari Lehtonen earned all three wins, stopping 101 of 104 Canuck shots for a .971 save percentage. Kevin Bieksa assisted on all three Canuck goals.
QUOTABLE
“I think they ate up a lot of teams last year and, so far, this year they’ve done the same thing. Didn’t get they 4-5 points last game, too? Those guys are world-class players. They’re really good offensively, so you really have to make it hard on them, limit their time and space, make them play in the defensive zone and frustrate them.” – Canucks right wing Alex Burrows on trying to stop, or at least slow down, Seguin and Benn.
