Game Day Notepad: Canucks vs Oilers

Less than 24 hours after turning in a dismal opening night performance against the Ducks, the Canucks (0-1-0) will look for a bounce back effort tonight when they welcome the high-flying Oilers (0-0-0) to Rogers Arena.

Read the entire Tale of the Tape preview exclusively at Canucks.com.

• The Canucks are looking to avoid losing consecutive games to open a season since they dropped three in a row to back in 2009.10.
• The seven goals the Canucks surrendered last night is the most they’ve given up in a single game since Game 3 of the 2011 Stanley Cup Final – an 8-1 loss to the Bruins. The most they gave up in a single game last year was six goals.
• The Canucks won four of the six meetings (4-2-0) in the season series against the Oilers last year, including all three games played at Rogers Arena.
• Alex Burrows led all players in the season series with eight points (3-5-8) versus Edmonton last year. He recorded at least one point in all six of the head-to-head meetings against the Oilers.
• Besides Burrows, Henrik Sedin, Daniel Sedin and ex-Canuck Sami Salo also had three goals apiece against Edmonton last season.
• Jordan Eberle and Taylor Hall led the Oilers in scoring against the Canucks last season. Both players had two goals and four assists each.
• Robert Luongo, who could start in net for Vancouver tonight, blanked the Oilers 3-0 in the last meeting between the clubs. He also chipped in with a power play assist in what was the regular season finale for both teams last year.
• The Canucks were 7-4-0 last season when playing on zero days rest.
• Edmonton has won two straight season openers but is winless in their last two road openers (0-1-1).
• Ralph Krueger makes his official NHL head coaching debut tonight. He served a few games as Edmonton’s interim head coach last season when former bench boss Tom Renney was sidelined with a concussion. He is best known for his time spent as coach of the Swiss national team.
• The Oilers would love a repeat of their start from last season. They went 8-2-2 out of the gate before falling back down to earth and ultimately finishing 29th in the overall league standings out of 30 teams.
• The Oilers’ active roster includes three first overall picks in Hall, Nugent-Hopkins and Yakupov, and 12 first round picks overall (Eager, Gagner, Hemsky, Paarjarvi, Smyth, Fistric, Smid, Whitney, Dubnyk)
• Edmonton’s top-two lines figure to look like this: Hall-RNH-Eberle and Yakupov-Gagner-Hemsky.
• Former Dallas Star and former Vancouver Giant D-man Mark Fistric, acquired via trade by Edmonton on Monday, finished fifth among all NHL defensemen in hits last season with 250.

FOLLOW THE GAME

Tonight's game faces off at 6 pm PT and can be seen on Rogers Sportsnet Pacific. Listen live on The TEAM 1040 Sports Radio or online at teamradio.ca.

Those away from a TV or radio can follow @CanucksGame on Twitter for live in-game play-by-play.