Humbled Canucks Return Home To Take On Struggling Coyotes

The Vancouver Canucks return home from a fairly successful four game road trip Tuesday to take on the Phoenix Coyotes. After four games in six nights on the road the Canucks will be eager to avenge an ugly 8-3 loss in Detroit Sunday. Their opposition - the Phoenix Coyotes who have lost both games on their current road trip and are 2-4-2 away from home this year.

Phoenix Coyotes (8-7-1-2) at Vancouver Canucks (10-4-0-4)
When: 10:00 PM ET, Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Where: Rogers Arena, Vancouver, British Columbia
Broadcast: FS-A PLUS, SNET-P
Coyotes vs. Canucks Betting Lines from betonline.com
Phoenix Coyotes +1½ -190 +163 Ov 5 -118
Vancouver Canucks -1½ +165 -180 Un 5 +107

The Coyotes lost a lead very late in Calgary Sunday – a 5-4 loss to the lowly Flames. They are just OK offensively and alright defensively. They have won the last two meetings with Vancouver – somehow. The Coyotes have not much going on right now outside of Raffi Torres, who tallied twice versus Calgary, has five points (three goals, two assists) in his last four contests.

Phoenix is playing their third game in four nights and is certainly ripe for the picking.

The Vancouver Canucks are overwhelming -180 favorites heading into this game and rightfully so. Roberto Luongo was hung out to dry Sunday to the tune of eight goals on 28 Detroit shots. No worries though – Cory Schneider should start. Despite looking just OK in his last start Schneider has stopped 56 of 57 shots in two career games against Phoenix.

Captain Henrik Sedin, who set up brother Daniel Sedin on pair of goals versus the Red Wings, has tallied twice and added nine assists in his last eight contests. It appears that the twins are rounding into form – a good sign for the Canucks going forward.

Sunday’s game was a mulligan for this team. A couple of concerns are Kevin Bieksa and David Booth, who are day-to-day with injuries.

Betting Prediction: A few trends to consider:

• Under is 5-1-4 in PHO last 10 vs. Northwest.
• Under is 14-4-3 in PHO last 21 Tue. games.
• PHO are 2-6 in their last 8 road games.
• VAN are 3-8 in their last 11 vs. Pacific.
• Under is 8-1 in the last 9 meetings in Vancouver.
• Road team is 6-2 in the last 8 meetings.

The numbers seem to suggest that Phoenix could make this a tighter game than most would think. But I’m not buying the numbers. Alain Vigneault has been a master at rallying this team after a bad loss. There is too much pride and too much professionalism in the Canucks dressing room to not respond.

Pick: Vancouver Canucks -180