VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- The Vancouver Canucks will attempt to defy their critics again Tuesday night.Experts, ranging from USA Today to ESPN to EA Sports, have predicted that the Canucks will finish last in the 30-team NHL this season. But Vancouver is unbeaten (2-0-0) in the young campaign heading into Tuesdays home date with the St. Louis Blues, who are also undefeated (3-0-0).Id like to say (the fast start to the season) probably doesnt make a difference, but I do think it makes a difference, said Canucks coach Willie Desjardins. Its hard if you go out and lose.Vancouver, which is attempting to get back to the playoffs after missing the post-season in 2015-16, pulled off back-to-back wins Saturday and Sunday over the Calgary Flames and Carolina Hurricanes. In both cases, center Brandon Sutter, who missed most of last season with jaw and leg injuries, scored the winning goals.The Canucks received points from a range of players in the first two games -- not just stars Daniel and Henrik Sedin, who were relied upon for most of the teams offense in the past.Contrary to last season, Vancouver also displayed an ability to overcome deficits. It beat Carolina by scoring four unanswered goals after the Hurricanes built a 3-0 lead. The Canucks negated a 1-0 deficit in a 2-1 win over Calgary.By comparison, Vancouver won only three of 34 games in which they trailed after two periods in 2015-16.To come from behind twice like that in our own rink is big, something that we didnt do very well last year, said Sutter, who also had an assist against Carolina. It seemed like those close games at the start of the year last year, we ended up losing in overtime and shootouts.But the chances of coming back against the Blues, a stingy defensive team, will be difficult at best, even though the visitors are battling early injuries. St. Louis allowed only six goals in its first three games -- two in each contest, to be precise -- while beating the Chicago Blackhawks, Minnesota Wild and New York Rangers.Meanwhile, the Blues scored 11 goals in the same span. Center Paul Stastny leads the way offensively with two goals and four assists, while winger Vladimir Tarasenko furnished three goals and two assists, and fellow winger Thomas Steen chipped in a goal and three helpers.Stastny and Steen are doing everything for us right now, said Blues coach Ken Hitchcock. Theyre killing all the penalties, theyre on the power play, theyre out against the top line, theyre playing huge minutes. Both guys are carrying the day for us.St. Louis will attempt to start a season 4-0 for only the second time in franchise history. It initially achieved the feat just three seasons ago, in 2013-14.But even after starting the current campaign with three wins in four nights, the demanding Hitchcock wants to see better efforts from other players -- particularly forwards.We need more participants, said Hitchcock. We need more people giving us better minutes up front. We just cant keep relying on the same two or three guys all the time.Lineup changes are inevitable as Hitchcock deals with the teams injury situation. The Blues lost three players to upper-body injuries during the first two periods of Saturday nights win over the New York Rangers -- centers Kyle Brodziak and Jori Lehtera and defenseman Carl Gunarrasson.Lehtera did not travel to Vancouver, while Brodziak and Gunnarsson are both listed as day-to-day. St. Louis elected not to call up any players from its AHL farm club in Chicago.Meanwhile, winger Jaden Schwartz could make his regular-season debut for the Blues after suffering an elbow injury in the preseason. Schwartz, who signed a five-year, $26.75-million contract on July 15, is starting the season late for the second straight year. He missed the first 49 games in 2015-16 with a fractured left ankle.The Canucks remained healthy through their first two games, although winger Anton Rodin has been sidelined with a sore knee since the preseason. The problem stems from a severed tendon which Rodin suffered last season while playing in Sweden. He underwent surgery to fix the problem but has been experiencing swelling and soreness.Vancouver winger Jack Skille, who cracked the roster after a successful tryout in preseason, could make his debut for the Canucks. Skille is expected to replace forward Brendan Gaunce, who has not done anything overly exciting in the first two games.Tuesdays game is the third of a four-game opening homestand for the Canucks, who are looking to make amends for a slow start last season -- and give their critics less material. Cheap Houston Astros Jerseys China . -- Golden State Warriors coach Mark Jackson asked his players a simple question during Fridays morning shootaround: How many of them had ever been on a team 14 games over . Cheap MLB Jerseys Online . On Mar. 16, coming off a "fight of the year" performance at UFC 154 the previous November, St-Pierre faced Nick Diaz at UFC 158 in what would be his eighth defence of the welterweight title. Using his superior athleticism, St-Pierre cruised to a five round, unanimous decision victory setting up a much-anticipated title defence against number one contender Johny Hendricks. http://www.cheapbaseballchina.com/cheap-cincinnati-reds-jerseys-china_203l.html . With their top three point guards and Kobe Bryant all sidelined by injury, the Lakers signed Marshall out of the D-League on Friday before their home game against Minnesota. Cheap Detroit Tigers Jerseys China .C. -- Todd Fiddler scored a hat trick, including the overtime goal, as the Prince George Cougars survived an 8-7 win against the Kamloops Blazers in Western Hockey League play Sunday. Stitched Baseball Jerseys . "It was nerve-wracking, but we pulled through," said Collaros, who threw four touchdown passes to lead the Toronto Argonauts (8-4) to a 33-27 win over the Calgary Stampeders (9-3) in front of 28,781 fans at McMahon Stadium.Normally the Playoff Hockey Challenge is but a small percentage of the great marathon that is the NHL season. Not so in this lockout-shortened campaign. This season, the Playoff Hockey Challenge will come with almost equal bragging rights to your regular fantasy hockey pool. In fact, if a team captures the cup while playing in four seven-game series, those games would represent more than half of what the NHL regular season was. If you havent participated in the Playoff Hockey Challenge before, this is your season to get into it. We had almost four months of hockey taken away from us earlier this season, and this game is a chance for the fantasy sports fans to reclaim part of that lost time. Dont settle for your fantasy hockey season ending later this month. Extend it through the postseason with the Playoff Hockey Challenge. The Basics This should be easy for those who enjoy playing the Hockey Challenge during the regular season. The rules are very similar to the Hockey Challenge and are consistent with most of your basic salary-cap games. You pick a team of six forwards, four defensemen and two goaltenders under a fantasy budget of $100 million. That team scores you goals, assists, wins and shutout bonuses to carry you to glory. Goals are worth a point, assists are worth a point, wins are worth two points, and goaltenders and defensemen get a bonus point for a shutout. Selecting a team of stars should be relatively easy as the game begins with most forwards drawing a salary just under $9 million, the top defensemen just under $8 million and the goaltenders peaking at $11 million. Do the math and you will notice you are just shy of being able to ice a roster of all the top players in the league. While that may be true, its not always the top players in the league who excel in the playoffs. You get to swap out your team after the first round of the playoffs and again after the conference semifinals, but you dont get to trade out the team after the conference finals. In other words, there is no harm in selecting players from teams that get eliminated in the first or second rounds. But when the playoffs are pared down to the four teams vying for a trip to the Stanley Cup finals, that is your final roster lock. There are no limits to the swapping as long as you stay under $100 million. In theory, you could have 36 different players on your roster during the entirety of the Playoff Hockey Challenge. Remember that all NHL players will be available to all other owners you are competing against, whether in a public, private or fan-based group. Your picks need to be shrewd, calculated and, most of all, pretty lucky. The Details Go for the goaltenders first in this game. Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown led the NHL in playoff scoring last season with 20 points. That means they led all skaters with 20 points in the Playoff Hockey Challenge. Henrik Lundqvist, whose team was eliminated in the conference finals, compiled 23 points in the Playoff Hockey Challenge.Jonathan Quick? He had 35 points in the Playoff Hockey Challenge. Evgeni Malkin had to be the seventh-highest scoring forward in NHL playoff history in 2009 to just get 36 points. Goaltenders are where the money is in this game. Pick two good ones and you have a guaranteed 48 points through the first three rounds. Pick two goaltenders who both make the Stanley Cup finals and battle in a seven-game series there? Thats 62 points, not counting shutouts. Brown, Kopitar and Ilya Kovalchuk, who was third in playoff scoring last season, didnt equal that number combined.dddddddddddd Longer playoff series provide and advantage, but not for goaltenders. Goaltenders cannot win more than four games in a series and get zero points if their team loses. Goalies are somewhat capped for points during this game, but there is no limit on what a skater can do for point production. A skater can score in a loss as much as he pleases. Seven-game series are where the real money is at in this fantasy game. A lot of star players not only score points when their team wins games but also when their team loses. A player competing in seven games, even if three of them are losses, has a much better chance of getting more points than a player in four games that are all wins. Defensemen are still important in this game and there will usually be one or two who stand out during the postseason, but the majority of defensemen will all be bunched between six and 10 points. That isnt enough of a difference to break your bank and not be able to afford a key forward who can get into the mid-20s for points. Besides, would you have predicted Drew Doughty and Bryce Salvador would lead the pack last season? Pick the good defensemen at the start of the game and switch out for the hot ones when you get to repick your team. The ones you picked at the start of the game probably wont be the ones leading the way. Picking the seven-game series ahead of time can be a fools errand, but there are slightly smarter places to place your bets. Of the 25 seven-game series in the first round during the past 12 postseasons, only five were between the No. 1 and No. 8 seeds. The most series that went the distance -- eight of them -- involved the No. 3 seed versus the No. 6 seed. No. 4 versus No. 5 accounted for six Game 7s, and No. 2 against No. 7 made up the other six. Thats a fairly even split, but if you are picking between two players where everything else is even in your mind, lean toward the tighter seeding between the teams. One final point: Treat the bonuses as a bonus. Last season was the first time in several years that shutouts in the regular season were an indicator of shutouts to come in the postseason, with Quick, Lundqvist and Mike Smith all notching three playoff shutouts for bonus points. Only three goaltenders during the 2007 through 2011 NHL playoffs posted more than one playoff shutout after finishing top three in shutouts during the regular season: Tim Thomas in 2011, Antti Niemi in 2010 and Dominik Hasek in 2007. Does that mean Pekka Rinne, Cory Schneiderand Smith are bound for great postseasons? Based on last year, yes. Based on the previous five years, no. That leans toward the conclusion that the bonus points are somewhat unpredictable. That said, Lundqvist and Smith sure do seem to pick up a lot of shutouts. If you like the New York Rangers orPhoenix Coyotes chances (if they make the playoffs), those two particular goaltenders do show personal trends for shutouts. But remember some of these facts: In the 2010 playoffs, Michael Leighton led the way with three shutouts after posting one during the regular season. In the 2009 playoffs, Chris Osgood, Cam Ward, Jonas Hiller and Semyon Varlamov led all goaltenders with two shutouts each. During the preceding regular season, they recorded a combined 12 shutouts. TSN Playoff Hockey Challenge is brought to you by Kia. ' ' '