Saturday night was as awful as Thursday was awesome. No time to dwell on bad nights though, as the Canucks go up against a team that they could well be battling for a Wild Card spot in the spring.

Vancouver Canucks (1-1-0) vs. St Louis Blues (1-1-0)

Rogers Arena, Vancouver, BC

4:30 pm PST; 7:30 pm EST

TV: Amazon Prime

Radio: Sportsnet 650

That was a frustrating watch, for sure. The Canucks went from doing so many things right on Thursday night to doing so few of them right on Saturday. And make no bones about it, Thatcher Demko was the only reason they even had a sniff at that game. I mean, that was one of the best performances we've seen out of Demko in quite some time, and the Canucks absolutely wasted it. We better see them trying to make amends for that garbage performance tonight as they host the Blues in an early game.

That was also the kind of game I fear we'll see a lot of from Evander Kane. Lots of impact on the contest, very little of it in the Canucks favour. I'd like to say I'd prefer to see him do less yapping and more playing, but he is who he is, and hopefully he doesn't come back to bite them on the ass too hard. Between his play and the gaffe-prone night from Filip Chytil, it was a long, tedious night for the Canucks.

And with a road trip that will see them play Dallas, Chicago and Washington over the span of 3 1/2 days (absolutely HATE that bullshit 9:30 am start time, and the NHL should not be allowing Eastern teams try to take advantage of Western teams this way), the Canucks really need to finish this first week of the season with a strong performance against a team they're likely going to be battling with for one of those Western Conference wild card slots, the St Louis Blues.

The Blues are sporting a similar record to start the year, having lost their season opener against Minnesota before rebounding with a 4-2 win over the Flames on Saturday afternoon. The big question for tonight, is do the Blues go back to Jordan Binnington, who gave up 5 goals in that loss to the Wild, or Joel Hofer, who was solid in that win over Calgary? Binnington has a good lifetime record over the Canucks, but if this is the start of a goaltending controversy in St Louis, especially with the Olympics around the corner, it could be a very interesting season.

LINEUPS

Courtesy of the nhl dot com interwebs thingy, here's tonight's expected lineups:

Blues projected lineup

Pavel Buchnevich -- Robert Thomas -- Jimmy Snuggerud

Dylan Holloway -- Brayden Schenn -- Jordan Kyrou

Jake Neighbours -- Pius Suter -- Alexander Texier

Mathieu Joseph -- Nick Bjugstad -- Nathan Walker

Cam Fowler -- Colton Parayko

Philip Broberg -- Justin Faulk

Tyler Tucker -- Logan Mailloux

Jordan Binnington

Joel Hofer

Scratched: Matthew Kessel

Injured: Oskar Sundqvist (lower body), Alexey Toropchenko (lower and upper-body soreness)

Canucks projected lineup

Jake DeBrusk -- Elias Pettersson -- Brock Boeser

Evander Kane -- Filip Chytil -- Conor Garland

Drew O'Connor -- Braeden Cootes -- Jonathan Lekkerimaki

Arshdeep Bains -- Aatu Raty -- Kiefer Sherwood

Quinn Hughes -- Filip Hronek

Marcus Pettersson -- Tyler Myers

Derek Forbort -- Elias Nils Pettersson

Kevin Lankinen

Thatcher Demko

Scratched: Victor Mancini, Linus Karlsson

Injured: Nils Hoglander (lower body), Teddy Blueger (undisclosed), P.O. Joseph (lower body)

According to this, it's gonna be Binnington vs Kevin Lankinen tonight. We know Lankinen will get at least another start this week, as they have a double header, likely the game in Chicago Friday night, as Demko should get the nod Thursday night in Dallas. Teddy Blueger is still not ready to return, so that means no changes for the Canucks, but if they don't get in tonight, expect Victor Mancini and Linus Karlsson to get some ice time on this road trip.

UPDATE: Mancini in, Forbert out for tonight.

GAME DAY CHATTER

GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN

I hope you're all having a good holiday weekend, and so to avoid indigestion, here's some nice Italian power metal that's gonna go down nice and easy. From their 2003 self-titled album, this is LABYRINTH with 'The Prophet'.

Enjoy the game, fuck fascism, and Go Canucks Go!