Stankoven aiming to bump scoring slump against Canucks, says Vancouver’s draft pass is old news

Stankoven won the Stanley Cup with the Carolina Hurricanes last season and skewered the Canucks earlier this month, registering his first NHL hat-trick and 100th career point in a 7-2 win on Oct. 8 in Raleigh, North Carolina.

The former Kamloops Blazers’ captain has not scored a goal since that contest and is aiming to bump the five-game slump in front of about 400 travelling Stankoven fans on Tuesday (Oct. 20) in Vancouver.

Stankoven, who has four goals and six points in 10 games this season, will do his best to ignore the Canucks’ status as a rebuilding and vulnerable club that has lost seven consecutive games.

“I don’t think you think about that going into a game,” Stankoven said. “If you play the right way, good things will happen.”

Carolina, helmed by Campbell River head coach Rod Brind’Amour, is aiming to rebound from a 3-2 loss to the Flames on Sunday in Calgary.

Despite the hiccup, the Hurricanes (7-2-1) sit tied atop Metropolitan Division standings with the New York Rangers (7-3-1) and show very few symptoms of Stanley Cup hangover.

“I don’t think any of us as a team talked about it,” Stankoven said. “I know Rod mentioned it going into training camp and the season. Honestly, I think it was the first couple of games where you don’t have that extended pre-season where you can get your legs back under you. I got to play two games. Most of the team only played one game. You’re thrown right into the fire and it took a couple games to get back to where we wanted to be.”

The Canucks are 2-7-1 on the campaign and sixth in Pacific Division standings.

Game time is 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday at Rogers Arena.

by Marty Hastings

Stankoven aiming to bump scoring slump against Canucks, says Vancouver’s draft pass is old news

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