They probably deserved a better fate, but after a ton of wasted power play opportunities and just one goal to show for it, the Canucks came up short against the Stars. Tonight, a visit from Calgary and a chance (albeit a slim one) to finish the month at .500 ahead of a tough California road trip.
Vancouver Canucks (9-11-2) vs. Calgary Flames (7-13-3)
Rogers Arena, Vancouver, BC
6:00 pm PST; 9:00 pm EST
TV: Sportsnet, SNOne
Radio: Sportsnet 650
If they could have strung a few wins together, it might have been possible. But the losses keep mounting, and this is destined to be another lost season for the Vancouver Canucks. But hey, at least owner Francesco Aquilini is confident they can turn it around, everyone!
I've tried to find positives in this year's version of the team. They're just not enough to outweigh the glaring deficiencies, and it's resulting in a tumble down the standings, as the pack starts leaving them behind. American Thanksgiving is the 27th, and the Canucks will have the night off between games in Anaheim and San Jose, and as if it's not already crystal clear: the Canucks are not making the playoffs this season. That means change has to be coming, and that means making painful emotional choices to ensure that this team starts stockpiling high first round draft picks. You know, tanking, as some refer to it. I don't give a good goddamn how you feel about that, honestly, because it's better than the alternative we've been forced to choke down for almost 15 bloody years now.
The Calgary Flames sit just three points behind the Canucks at the moment, and coming off a big shootout win over Dallas last night, will be pumped up, along with a little payback on their minds, remembering back to the season opener and a 5-1 drubbing at the hands of the Canucks. By Wednesday, the Flames could leapfrog the Canucks in the standings, and that's when we have to get real, and understand that this team is absolutely not good, and needs to be stripped down, some of the best players shipped out for draft picks, and hope for some luck in the draft. Yes, a rebuild. Over a decade of retooling on the fly has accomplished absolutely nothing, and we're wasting prime portions of the careers of guys like Quinn Hughes and Elias Pettersson, much the same as we wasted the final years of the Sedin brothers.
Injuries, and generation of drafting in the middle of the pack has left them with a team that is exactly that: mid. Yes, they would be better if they hadn't seen the catastrophic injuries they've had to deal with this season, but that better would still have them as a fringe team in a Western Conference that is far tougher than most anticipated so far this season. Add in the growing pains of a rookie coaching staff, and it adds up to the fabulous disaster we see before us every night: occasional glimpses of what could be, washed down with a healthy helping of just not good enough.
And while it's not related to the team's play, can we just say how once again, the NHL schedule makers just defy logic, and seem to thrill at being able to add additional travel to the Canucks? They start this road swing in Anaheim on Wednesday, then go up to San Jose Friday, and back down to Los Angeles Saturday. I know it's a compressed schedule, but you're literally adding extra travel that you don't need to. Start them in San Jose, and then do Anaheim and LA, which are 45 km apart. It's insane.
Oh well, at least the Goldeneyes haven't crushed our souls yet.
LINEUPS
From that nhl dot com deely, it's your potential maybe sorta lineup prediction:
Flames projected lineup
Jonathan Huberdeau -- Morgan Frost -- Matt Coronato
Yegor Sharangovich -- Nazem Kadri -- Joel Farabee
Connor Zary -- Mikael Backlund -- Blake Coleman
John Beecher -- Sam Morton -- Adam Klapka
Kevin Bahl -- Rasmus Andersson
Yan Kuznetsov -- MacKenzie Weegar
Jake Bean -- Brayden Pachal
Dustin Wolf
Devin Cooley
Scratched: Joel Hanley, Ryan Lomberg, Dryden Hunt
Injured: Martin Pospisil (undisclosed), Zayne Parekh (upper body), Samuel Honzek (upper body)
Canucks projected lineup
Jake DeBrusk -- Elias Pettersson -- Evander Kane
Brock Boeser -- David Kampf -- Conor Garland
Drew O'Connor -- Aatu Raty -- Kiefer Sherwood
Mackenzie MacEachern -- Max Sasson -- Linus Karlsson
Quinn Hughes -- Filip Hronek
Marcus Pettersson -- Tyler Myers
Elias Nils Pettersson -- Tom Willander
Kevin Lankinen
Jiri Patera
Scratched: Arshdeep Bains, P.O. Joseph, Lukas Reichel
Injured: Thatcher Demko (lower body), Filip Chytil (concussion protocol), Teddy Blueger (lower body), Nils Hoglander (lower body), Derek Forbort (undisclosed)
Jake DeBrusk is back on the top line tonight, while Kiefer Sherwood slots in on the third line. Evander Kane is still inexplicably on the first line. Lankinen starts again tonight, and unless Demko is suddenly better for this road trip, we might see Jiri Patera again on the weekend. Oh, boy.
GAME DAY CHATTER
GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN
Seattle bangers METAL CHURCH are back with a beast of a new song and a new lineup that sounds pretty promising. With former MEGADETH bassist David Ellison joining their ranks, this album is sure to get some hype when it comes out, but in the meantime, here's 'FAFO'.
Enjoy the game, everyone. Fuck fascism. Go Canucks Go!
Given the travel, the time frame, and the status of the Canucks and all of their injuries, coming out of that road trip with three of a possible six points feels like a win. And while they seemed to have ignited their offence, they've got to get better goaltending, or the teams ahead of them in the West are going to stay that way.
Vancouver Canucks (9-10-2) vs. Dallas Stars (12-5-3)
Rogers Arena, Vancouver, BC
7:00 pm PST; 10:00 pm EST
TV: Sportsnet Pacific
Radio: Sportsnet 650
There are definitely positives to take out of that road swing out east, in spite of how Monday night went. First and foremost, the play of Quinn Hughes and Elias Pettersson is encouraging, to say the least. Hughes racked up 8 assists in three games (and remember, he missed the game in Carolina), which earned him third star of the week honours from the NHL. Pettersson meanwhile has been consistently putting up points, his scoring touch is coming back, and he's been killing it in the faceoff dot.
They've also got the power play producing, and getting scoring from guys up and down the lineup. In their last 5 games, they have 21 goals, and usually, that should get you more than one win in that stretch, right? It should, if you have goaltending and defence better than the Canucks, and that could be what sinks them this season, along with an awful penalty kill.
Add in that they have to take on the Dallas Stars without Thatcher Demko, who has been phenomenal against the Stars in his career, and this doesn't appear to be getting better, at least tonight. Dallas look very much ready to take another run at things, and appear to have all the pieces. The thought of how badly their power play, currently cruising along at a success rate of just under 32%, is going to abuse the NHL's worst penalty kill tonight is making my stomach rumble. And if we can't get Kevin Lankinen to stand on his head, this is going to be a long night.
It's not that the Canucks aren't putting in the effort. The actual number of times where it felt like they weren't competing as hard as they could is almost non-existent. The work effort is definitely there, it's just they're not very good, and the injuries to key players have compounded that problem.
LINEUPS
We found this on the NHL dot com thang...
Stars projected lineup
Sam Steel -- Wyatt Johnston -- Mikko Rantanen
Jason Robertson -- Roope Hintz -- Tyler Seguin
Oskar Back -- Justin Hyrckowian -- Maverick Bourque
Jamie Benn -- Radek Faksa -- Colin Blackwell
Esa Lindell -- Miro Heiskanen
Lian Bichsel -- Alexander Petrovic
Vladislav Kolyachonok -- Kyle Capobianco
Jake Oettinger
Casey DeSmith
Scratched: Nathan Bastian
Injured: Adam Erne (lower body), Matt Duchene (upper body), Nils Lundkvist (lower body), Ilya Lyubushkin (undisclosed)
Canucks projected lineup
Evander Kane -- Elias Pettersson -- Kiefer Sherwood
Brock Boeser -- David Kampf -- Conor Garland
Jake DeBrusk -- Aatu Raty -- Drew O'Connor
Mackenzie MacEachern -- Max Sasson -- Linus Karlsson
Quinn Hughes -- Filip Hronek
Marcus Pettersson -- Tyler Myers
Elias Pettersson -- Tom Willander
Kevin Lankinen
Jiri Patera
Scratched: Arshdeep Bains, P.O Joseph, Lukas Reichel
Injured: Thatcher Demko (lower body), Filip Chytil (concussion protocol), Teddy Blueger (lower body), Nils Hoglander (lower body), Derek Forbort (undisclosed)
I have to say, Lukas Reichel being a healthy scratch is not a good look. I know the expectations for him were low, but man, he simply is not playing at an NHL level right now. I know Elias Pettersson has been playing well, as has Conor Garland, but I wonder how much longer Evander Kane will be tied to those two. They seem to be performing well in spite of him, and his actual impact on their performance is minimal at best.
GAME DAY CHATTER
GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN
With today being Trans Remembrance Day, it felt fitting to offer up the latest from a band that is leading the fight against the bastards trying to erase trans people from existence. TRANSGRESSIVE are led by Alicia Cordisco, and their latest EP 'Not Like This' is a politically charged riff fest that puts TRANSGRESSIVE among the leaders in the aggressive thrash scene. Check them out on Bandcamp, and here's the opening track off that new EP, "All We Are Is All We Have". Trans rights are human rights.
Enjoy the game. Fuck fascists. Go Canucks Go!
If you turned that game off after the first period, you might be surprised by that final score. But for all the bounces the Canucks got in this game, they definitely earned them, battling back from two goals down thanks to a final 30 minutes where they went toe to toe with a good Tampa squad.
Vancouver Canucks (9-9-2) vs. Florida Panthers (9-8-1)
Amerant Bank Arena, Sunrise, FL
4:00 pm PST; 7:00 pm EST
TV: Sportsnet Pacific
Radio: Sportsnet 650
If you were watching yesterday's game, I wouldn't blame you if you flipped over to watch the Grey Cup after seeing that first period. Apart from the initial rush of seeing Conor Garland take down Darren Raddysh in this season's most unexpected fight, there wasn't anything to feel good about, apart from Kevin Lankinen holding the fort. The Lightning threw everything they had at the Canucks in the first, and damn near came away empty handed if not for the Nikita Kucherov goal with less than a minute to go in the frame. The Canucks looked outmatched, and it felt like we were in for a long afternoon.
But from the second period on, the Canucks were as good, if not better than the Bolts, and after going down 2-0, started the comeback halfway through the second, with Jake DrBrusk hammering home an Elias Pettersson rebound, and it felt like, if they could just get one more, they might have a shot.
Cue the craziest third period of the season.
The Canucks exploded for five goals after mustering just seven shots through the first forty minutes. With Tampa's backup in net, that old proverb of "just get some pucks on him" turned out to be the way to go, as deflections and bounces led to three goals in 1:40 to give the Canucks a 4-2 lead. It looked like the Lightning had made it 4-3, but a crafty Canucks challenge on the play, alleging that the puck had been played with a high stick and should have been blown down, overturned the goal. It was the first time they'd used the new rule this season, and it probably killed any hope of a Tampa comeback. After Mackenzie MacEachern got his first as a Canuck to make it 5-2, the fans started heading for the exits.
What an absolute monster game from Quinn Hughes. After missing the Carolina game, that gave Hughes 7 assists in his last two games. Kevin Lankinen was outstanding, shutting the door after the second goal and giving them the chance to pull off the comeback. And another strong performance from Elias Pettersson, continuing his strong two way play along with a two assist night.
Naturally, there was a downside, and that was Conor Garland not returning to the game after his tilt with Raddysh, yet another challenge for the Canucks as they prepare to take on the Florida Panthers tonight. Fortunately, they at least have a body to put in the lineup as David Kampf, signed by the Canucks last week.
Kampf is a center, and while he's not the center they need, he's gonna do a couple things that are going to help. First, he can take defensive zone draws and take some of the pressure off EP40 to take all of the draws.
Second, he's going to make the utterly embarrassing penalty kill better (though credit where credit is due, the PK came up big yesterday, especially in the second).
As far as the Panthers, they have, like the Canucks and Lightning, been struggling with injuries to key players this season, and so far aren't looking quite like the two time defending champs they are. That's not any reason at all to take them lightly, though, and this is still gonna be a hell of a tough night for the Canucks in the back end of a back to back. That being said, the Canucks have performed well in back to backs so far this season, and with the confidence boost of two strong games on this road trip so far, maybe they actually can return to Vancouver with five of a possible six points?
LINEUPS
From the nhl dot com thingy...
Canucks projected lineup
Evander Kane -- Elias Pettersson -- Kiefer Sherwood
Brock Boeser -- Max Sasson -- Jake DeBrusk
Drew O'Connor -- Aatu Raty -- Arshdeep Bains
Mackenzie MacEachern -- David Kampf -- Lukas Reichel
Quinn Hughes -- Filip Hronek
Marcus Pettersson -- Tyler Myers
Elias Nils Pettersson -- Tom Willander
Kevin Lankinen
Jiri Patera
Scratched: P.O Joseph, Linus Karlsson
Injured: Thatcher Demko (lower body), Conor Garland (undisclosed), Filip Chytil (concussion protocol), Teddy Blueger (lower body), Nils Hoglander (lower body), Derek Forbort (undisclosed)
Panthers projected lineup
Mackie Samoskevich -- Anton Lundell -- Brad Marchand
Carter Verhaeghe -- Evan Rodrigues -- Sam Reinhart
A.J. Greer -- Sam Bennett -- Jesper Boqvist
Noah Gregor -- Cole Schwindt -- Luke Kunin
Gustav Forsling -- Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola -- Seth Jones
Uvis Balinskis -- Jeff Petry
Sergei Bobrovsky
Daniil Tarasov
Scratched: Donovan Sebrango
Injured: Eetu Luostarinen (lower body), Matthew Tkachuk (lower body), Tomas Nosek (knee), Jonah Gadjovich (upper body), Dmitry Kulikov (shoulder)
So it's Kampf with MacEachern and Reichel, and Arshdeep Bains will be with O'Connor and Raty. Karlsson will sit tonight, and Max Sasson continues to get rewarded for his efforts seeing second line duties between DeBrusk and Brock Boeser. It looks like Lankinen might go in goal tonight, and Florida, after seeing Tampa's backup get lit up last night, isn't taking any chances, as they'll start Sergei Bobrovsky. And as expected, the Canucks sent Victor Mancini down to Abbotsford, which I am sure the AHL Canucks will gladly welcome him back.
GAME DAY CHATTER
GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN
Released on this day in 1986, 'Darkness Descends' was the album that put Dark Angel up with many of the upper echelon thrash contenders. Just an absolute beast of a record, with relentless riffing and drumming from the legendary Gene Hoglan make this one a must listen. Here's the title track for ya!
Enjoy the game, folks. Fuck fascism! Go Canucks Go!
5 p.m. ET; The Spot, SNP
Our Canucks snuck out of Carolina with a loser point and now face both Florida teams in the remainder of this short road trip. Getting 2 more points in Florida would be nice. Did you know that the Canucks are only 6 points out of 1st place in the division? Me neither....what a fucking start to the season. It won't change my mind about this team though.
The newest Canuck, David Kampf, is not expected to play today, which is ok because he is not expected to score goals either. Brought in faceoffs and some defense, the Canucks are trying to field more than 2 NHL lines a game.
Sad fact: Canucks haven't won in Tampa since 2018
GAMEDAY LINEUPS
Canucks projected lineup
Evander Kane -- Elias Pettersson -- Conor Garland
Brock Boeser -- Lukas Reichel -- Kiefer Sherwood
Drew O'Connor -- Aatu Raty -- Jake DeBrusk
Mackenzie MacEachern -- Max Sasson -- Linus Karlsson
Elias Nils Pettersson -- Filip Hronek
Marcus Pettersson -- Tyler Myers
P.O Joseph -- Tom Willander
Kevin Lankinen
Jiri Patera
Scratched: Arshdeep Bains, Victor Mancini
Injured: Quinn Hughes (upper body), Thatcher Demko (lower body), Filip Chytil (concussion protocol), Teddy Blueger (lower body), Nils Hoglander (lower body), Derek Forbort (undisclosed)
Lightning projected lineup
Jake Guentzel -- Brayden Point -- Nikita Kucherov
Gage Goncalves -- Yanni Gourde -- Jakob Pelletier
Zemgus Girgensons -- Jack Finley -- Oliver Bjorkstrand
Boris Katchouk -- Curtis Douglas -- Scott Sabourin
J.J. Moser -- Max Crozier
Charle-Edouard D'Astous -- Erik Cernak
Emil Lilleberg -- Darren Raddysh
Jonas Johansson
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Scratched: None
Injured: Brandon Hagel (upper body), Nick Paul (upper body), Ryan McDonagh (undisclosed), Pontus Holmberg (undisclosed), Dominic James (undisclosed), Victor Hedman (undisclosed), Anthony Cirell (upper body)
Status report
The Canucks signed forward David Kämpf to a one year, $1.1 million contract Saturday. ... Demko, a goalie, was placed on injured reserve Friday. ... Mancini, a defenseman, was activated off IR on Friday. ... Paul, a forward, is expected to return as early as Tuesday, when the Lightning are home against the New Jersey Devils.
GAMEDAY CHATTER
The following is a recap of Rick Dhaliwal's interview of Halford & Brough
Sportsnet is trying to ragebait Canucks management by saying that Rutherford might want to rebuild...now
This discussion has been going on since the firing of AV and the decline of the Sedins. And each time Francesco has said no to any version of it as the team first got Brock....and Petey.....and Demko......and then Hughes. And each time, some Vancouver fans and media has said, "Now we will be great again!" So, if I am Francesco, why would I ever let management gut this team and have it suffer years of rebuilding....oh and miss out on being just good enough to get some playoff games. "Fans have demanded that we not rebuild!", would be my line. "If this team was healthy!" has been the rally cry for years and the fact that our best players always seem to go down to injury might be an indicator that they might not be the stars we hoped for. I admit that I don't want to go through 5 years of last place, but to be honest, 5 years of missing the playoffs by 2-8 points might be a more painful kicked to the balls.
My prediction at the start of the year was this team, healthy, was not a playoff team. The injury fairies are making things easier for me to be right.
News like this is hard to see.
The Vancouver media market is a crowded hot mess, but there are a few sites that try to give the news about our team in a fair light and PITB did that. I didn't always agree with Daniel, but I was sure as hell going to read what he had to say. I'm not sure what "Vancouver is Awesome" is thinking by abandoning their Canuck coverage. I guess they could just be saying that the Canucks aren't awesome so why cover them. It could be the fact that to them, the clicks aren't there. That's what happened to NM when we were slaves to SBN.
Media over the past 20 years has drastically changed from the Newspaper/TV domination to 100 different internet/podcasts about the team, but it's unfortunate when good writing is forced out. I think Jimmi, Kent, Thursday and I would love Daniel to write here. He would be fucking crazy to write for free. We all hope someone grabs him up and pays him to write.
GAMEDAY BATTLE HYMN
When Kent is away, the mice will play. Or at least put different music in this section to save us from the metal. Today I offer a Japanese group, Mono No Aware. They crafted a song about absolutely nothing called "かむかもしかもにどもかも！" Say that 5 times fast. I once looked up the lyrics....translated of course, and they literally made no sense......much like the Canucks penalty Kill.
Let's get a win today....Go Coconuts Go!
The Canucks acquitted themselves well against the NHL's top squad, showing zero quit against the Avs, and could have won that game if not for a fortunate bounce for Colorado. No time rest on that though, as they face another tough test to close out this homestand, with the Winnipeg Jets in town.
Vancouver Canucks (8-8-1) vs. Winnipeg Jets (9-6-0)
Rogers Arena, Vancouver, BC
7:00 pm PST; 10:00 pm EST
TV: Sportsnet Pacific, TSN 3
Radio: Sportsnet 650
For a game that could have been as laughable as the one the Avs played the evening before in Edmonton, that was entertaining as hell and far more worthy of the hype that preceded the 9-1 Colorado victory over the Oilers. The Canucks went toe to toe with the Avs, refusing to back down after an early 2-0 lead, and again got big games out of their best players to get a well deserved OT point.
The Canucks are a strange case, because when you look at their record, being a .500 hockey team, they appear to be exactly that. Yet when you look at the division standings, they have more wins than every team in front of them, save for the division leading Anaheim Ducks (yes, it's weird). The Ducks and Canucks are the only ones with less than two loser points, so maybe it's still to early to determine if things are a wash just yet? There's a hell of a log jam in the Pacific (and the West in general) and if they can string three or four wins together, that might give them a chance at staying above the playoff cutoff line. They're not world beaters by any stretch, but these last few games showed a team that's ready to battle, at least.
Tonight, another team that isn't where people thought they would be heading into the season, but sitting just a point up on the Canucks for that Wild Card slot, a regulation win for Vancouver will bump the Jets down, and the Utah Mammoth would be on the outside looking in thanks to the ROWs the Jets have so far this season. This game is a dangerous one, with the Jets, who got off to a tremendous start but are now losers of three straight, and while they are once again getting good goaltending from Connor Hellebuyck, they've got to get more scoring from the rest of their team. 18 of their 47 goals come from Kyle Connor and Mark Scheifele. If they can get more scoring from the rest of their lineup, they could contend again this year in what should continue to be a real dog fight in the Central.
LINEUPS
From the nhl dot com thing, here's tonight's probable rosters:
Jets projected lineup
Kyle Connor -- Mark Scheifele -- Gabriel Vilardi
Vladislav Namestnikov -- Jonathan Toews -- Cole Perfetti
Nino Niederreiter -- Adam Lowry -- Alex Iafallo
Tanner Pearson -- Parker Ford -- Nikita Chibrikov
Josh Morrissey -- Dylan DeMelo
Logan Stanley -- Neal Pionk
Haydn Fleury -- Luke Schenn
Connor Hellebuyck
Eric Comrie
Scratched: Brad Lambert, Colin Miller
Injured: Dylan Samberg (wrist), Gustav Nyquist (lower body), Morgan Barron (undisclosed), Cole Koepke (undisclosed)
Canucks projected lineup
Evander Kane -- Elias Pettersson -- Conor Garland
Brock Boeser -- Lukas Reichel -- Kiefer Sherwood
Drew O'Connor -- Aatu Raty -- Jake DeBrusk
Arshdeep Bains -- Max Sasson -- Linus Karlsson
Quinn Hughes -- Filip Hronek
Marcus Pettersson -- Tyler Myers
Elias Nils Pettersson -- Tom Willander
Thatcher Demko
Kevin Lankinen
Scratched: P.O. Joseph, Mackenzie MacEachern
Injured: Victor Mancini (undisclosed), Filip Chytil (concussion protocol), Jonathan Lekkerimaki (upper body), Teddy Blueger (lower body), Nils Hoglander (lower body), Derek Forbort (undisclosed)
So, Demko is back after getting the weekend off. This is good, but the Canucks need to learn how to better communicate that they're taking him out of the lineup because of soreness that is managing his health with the best interests of team and player in mind. That way, we all know, instead of going into the dread spiral at the thought of another long term injury. No other changes, it would appear, though Mancini, Lekkerimaki and Blueger are all getting close to returning.
GAME DAY CHATTER
GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN
Bavarian thrashers DUST BOLT dropped a new single this past weekend, and should be releasing a new full length album in the new year. It's pretty solid melodic thrash, and if you haven't checked these guys out before, they're definitely a good stepping stone band to start exploring modern thrash.
A back and forth game addled by some of the worst officiating we've seen in a while, but the Canucks were able to get it done on Hockey Fights Cancer on a late third period beauty from Brock Boeser. Tonight, a tougher test as the Avs are in town, fresh off of embarassing McDavid and the Oilers on HNIC.
Vancouver Canucks (8-8-0) vs. Colorado Avalanche (9-1-5)
Rogers Arena, Vancouver, BC
7:00 pm PST; 10:00 pm EST
TV: Sportsnet Pacific
Radio: Sportsnet 650
There were times where the Canucks looked like they were starting to figure it out. In a high energy, back and forth game against a young, speedy Columbus team, they were rolling with the punches, and unlike some of the losses this season, didn't let this one slip away. That's not to say it couldn't have happened. At least one softie from Kevin Lankinen, who overall had a pretty solid night, helped to make this game closer than it needed to be. The Penalty kill was good last night, and Lankinen was a big part of that. The Canucks PP meanwhile didn't get as many chances as they should have, as last night's officiating crew just flat out embarrassed themselves by letting some calls go that were downright blatant.
Just absolute bush league shit by Wood on that one, driving Myers' head into the glass with his forearm, in plain view of the official. This after tossing Olivier for that chickenshit hit in the numbers on Elias Pettersson (D), which resulted in a five minute major and game misconduct.
Okay, so some positives from last night. Jake DeBrusk scoring at 5 on 5 was good, and he seems to have some chemistry building with Drew O'Connor, who had another solid outing last night. And with Lukas Reichel finally getting his first point as a Canuck, that line might take some pressure off the the EP40, Kane and Garland line, who, in spite of Kane bumbling his way through another one, were good last night. Quinn Hughes looked more like his old self last night than we'd seen so far this season, even if the best dangle of the night was Tyler Myers' majestic foray to the net to set up the Conor Garland goal.
Tonight's challenge is a whole different beast, however.
The Colorado Avalanche are one of the early favorites for a run at the Cup, and last night, they showed why the Edmonton Oilers absolutely should not be, stomping a mud hole in McDavid and Draisaitl in a 9-1 embarrassment in Edmonton. So should we expect more of the same tonight? Maybe... or maybe not?
There wasn't a lot that went right for the Canucks last season, but one thing that did was their season series against the Avs. The Canucks came away with the sweep, and are 6-3-1 in their last ten meetings. Sometimes, you just run into teams you can't solve, and for the Avs, it might be the Canucks. Now, obviously the goaltending situation factors heavily in this. Is it going to be a) a tired Kevin Lankinen, who faced 32 shots last night; b) Jiri Patera, who is the Canucks 4th or 5th string goaltender; or c) Thatcher Demko, who is maybe injured or tired or some combination of both?
The other good thing, is that because he played last night, the Avs are giving Scott Wedgewood the night off, and going with Mackenzie Blackwood, who has just an OT loss so far this season, all of the wins going to Wedgewood so far. After the hype of last night's contest, which turned out to be completely unfounded, maybe the Avs are due for a let down game? And with the Canucks pulling off the win after trailing twice in that game, maybe they've got some confidence heading into tonight?
LINEUPS
The nhl dot com thingy says:
Avalanche projected lineup
Artturi Lehkonen -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Martin Necas
Ross Colton -- Brock Nelson -- Valeri Nichushkin
Gabriel Landeskog -- Jack Drury -- Victor Olofsson
Parker Kelly -- Zakhar Bardakov -- Gavin Brindley
Devon Toews -- Cale Makar
Josh Manson -- Brent Burns
Ilya Solovyov -- Sam Malinski
Mackenzie Blackwood
Scott Wedgewood
Scratched: Danil Gushchin
Injured: Samuel Girard (upper body), Joel Kiviranta (lower body), Logan O’Connor (hip surgery)
Canucks projected lineup
Evander Kane -- Elias Pettersson -- Conor Garland
Jake DeBrusk -- Lukas Reichel -- Drew O'Connor
Brock Boeser -- Aatu Raty -- Kiefer Sherwood
Arshdeep Bains -- Max Sasson -- Linus Karlsson
Quinn Hughes -- Filip Hronek
Marcus Pettersson -- Tyler Myers
Elias Nils Pettersson -- Tom Willander
Kevin Lankinen
Jiri Patera
Scratched: P.O. Joseph, Mackenzie MacEachern
Injured: Thatcher Demko (preventative maintenance), Victor Mancini (undisclosed), Filip Chytil (concussion protocol), Jonathan Lekkerimaki (upper body), Teddy Blueger (lower body), Nils Hoglander (lower body), Derek Forbort (undisclosed)
I would expect we see Blueger, Lekkerimaki and Mancini all return to the lineup at some point this season, though it could also be that Mancini heads to Abbotsford for a spell, given how well Tom Willander has played since getting called up.
GAME DAY CHATTER
Well, gonna need the defensive effort of the year tonight, to give Lankinen all the help he needs.
Bridgeman was a star for the WCHL Victoria Cougars in junior, before a solid NHL career that came to an end with three seasons in Vancouver. Our condolences to the Bridgeman family.
GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN
From the frozen steppes of Mongolia come UUHAI, a seven piece band that incorporate Mongolian folk music with metal, sung completely in Mongolian. From their upcoming album 'Human Herds', this is 'Uuhai', and it's out in January on Napalm Records.
Enjoy the game. Smash fascism! Go Canucks Go!
I tried my best to find positives through the dark clouds with this team, I really did. I can't keep doing this, because I don't believe there's anything positive. This team is awful, and it's not going to get better.
Vancouver Canucks (7-8-0) vs. Nashville Predators (7-6-0)
Rogers Arena, Vancouver, BC
7:00 pm PST; 10:00 pm EST
TV: Sportsnet Pacific, CITY
Radio: Sportsnet 650
Just blow it up already. It's so clear that this team is not even close to what it takes, and instead of insulting the fan base as you have for almost two bloody decades, just pull the trigger and do a proper rebuild. I can't take another year of this trying to be convinced they're close, and if things go right they'll be fine. This is the Vancouver Canucks. Things NEVER go right.
It would be easy to say that the injuries have been the reason for the Canucks play this season, and sure, that's definitely a factor. The problem is they haven't gotten any better as they've gotten healthier. Even the goaltending has been letting them down, but when you look at this team: They can't convert chances, they are not the defensively responsible team we were told they would be, the power play is not good enough, and the penalty kill is a liability. Even with the players that are out returning to the lineup, are they the difference makers that can right this sinking ship? Hardly.
And so, that brings us to the same problem we've had for years now. An owner unwilling to do the painful, yet necessary rebuild. He got fleeced by Jim Benning telling him this team was close, and could be fixed. So convinced of this, they ran Trevor Linden out, because Trev knew this team needed to be torn down to the basement and rebuilt. That was over a decade ago, and instead, we got to see the Canucks waste the remaining years of the Sedins, trade away the best goaltender the franchise has ever had, and continue to be just lousy enough to never get good enough odds to win a draft lottery.
I'm tired, man. All I want is a competitive team that is entertaining to watch, and gives us some hope that the fourth time might be the one. Instead, we get Tyler Myers playing crazy minutes, we get Evander Kane, and we get more wasted seasons. We're gonna lose Quinn Hughes. I am almost certain of it now, and if you thought things were bad already, just wait until the first genuine superstar defenceman this team has ever had leaves. DPetey and Willander are going to be good, they've already shown us that, but neither of these guys is a Quinn Hughes replacement. And so that means at least one of them, along with some other prospects and roster guys would need to be done in order to make any kind of meaningful change to show Hughes it's worth it to stay. But with every loss, that's getting harder and harder to believe.
And to make things worse, the Canucks might have to play Kevin Lankinen in a back to back, because of the totally not injured Thatcher Demko, as they host the Colorado Avalanche tomorrow night. See below for the details on just how bad it is, but tonight's backup is going to be Jiri Patera, and last night, the EBUG played the 3rd period for Abbotsford. Absolutely, completely boned.
LINEUPS
The usual... nhl dot com. Blame them if it's wrong.
Blue Jackets projected lineup
Miles Wood -- Sean Monahan -- Kent Johnson
Dmitri Voronkov -- Adam Fantilli -- Kirill Marchenko
Cole Sillinger -- Charlie Coyle -- Mathieu Olivier
Boone Jenner -- Luca Del Bel Belluz -- Yegor Chinakhov
Zach Werenski -- Denton Mateychuk
Ivan Provorov -- Damon Severson
Jake Christiansen -- Dante Fabbro
Elvis Merzlikins
Jet Greaves
Scratched: Dysin Mayo, Zach Aston-Reese, Isac Lundestrom
Injured: Erik Gudbranson (hip)
Canucks projected lineup
Evander Kane -- Elias Pettersson -- Conor Garland
Jake DeBrusk -- Lukas Reichel -- Drew O'Connor
Brock Boeser -- Aatu Raty -- Kiefer Sherwood
Arshdeep Bains -- Max Sasson -- Linus Karlsson
Quinn Hughes -- Filip Hronek
Marcus Pettersson -- Tyler Myers
Elias Nils Pettersson -- Tom Willander
Kevin Lankinen
Jiri Patera
Scratched: P.O. Joseph, Mackenzie MacEachern
Injured: Thatcher Demko (maintenance), Victor Mancini (undisclosed), Filip Chytil (concussion protocol), Jonathan Lekkerimaki (upper body), Teddy Blueger (lower body), Nils Hoglander (lower body), Derek Forbort (undisclosed)
Hoo boy. Not sure even with his slump to start the season that Evander Kane's earned the right to continue to get the top line assignment with Elias Pettersson, because he hasn't shown any ability to be the kind of setup man Petey needs. Let's hope Garland can get on track there. Also, Boeser down to the third line, on the left side? Yeesh. Gonna be holding my breath anytime anyone comes near Lankinen tonight. The Jackets are coming off a 5-1 shellacking at the hands of the lowly Calgary Flames, so you know they're gonna be fired up.
GAME DAY CHATTER
So maybe he's good to go for tomorrow? If not, it's gonna be a long, ugly night.
GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN
Things are stupid, so let's get stupid. From Australia, here's HEAD IN A JAR, with a track about the idiocy of 'alpha' males, called 'Do The Hunka-Chunka'. You're welcome.
Enjoy the game, or not. Fuck fascism! Go Lions Go! Go Canucks Go!
With another extra time win, the Canucks return home after pulling in 4 of a possible six points. They kick off a four game home stand with a visit from Connor Bedard and the Blackhawks, who appear to be falling back to earth after a solid start to the season.
Vancouver Canucks (7-7-0) vs. Nashville Predators (5-5-3)
Rogers Arena, Vancouver, BC
7:00 pm PST; 10:00 pm EST
TV: Sportsnet Pacific
Radio: Sportsnet 650
After the way the Canucks lost their last visit to Nashville, you knew they'd come out with a little more fire, and for most of that game, they looked... dominant? They certainly controlled a lot of the play, in a way we haven't seen much this season. And they likely would have escaped that one in regulation, if the officials hadn't gotten so involved in the outcome.
Serving up a power play to Nashville on a phantom high stick by Evander Kane, the Preds were able to take advantage of the floundering Canucks PK to tie the game with less than four minutes remaining. Sure, the Canucks should have killed off the penalty, but the call is just so obviously a complete embellishment by Luke Evangelista, that we'd probably still be pissed off about it. I mean, I am loathe to give Evander Kane any credit, as he's taken a number of penalties this season which have led to goals and losses, but c'mon, man. That is not a high stick, and the fact that Evangelista was not fined by the league since then for embellishment, just shows you how little they care about it.
Thankfully, some things are evergreen, like Brock Boeser owning the Nashville Predators. Juuse Saros must see that flow in his nightmares, as once again, Boeser crushed the souls of the Preds and their fans with a last second dagger, and it was a beauty. Fantastic work by him and Elias Pettersson to get that done with just 10 seconds left in the OT, moving their record back to .500 and their OT/SO record to 4-0.
Tonight, though... it's a trap. The Chicago Blackhawks got off to a bad start buy losing five straight to start the season. After a stretch where they won 4 of 5 including victories over Utah, Anaheim and Tampa, they've since lost 3 straight and 4 of their last 5. So desperate for a win, after dropping road games in Winnipeg, Edmonton and Seattle with just one point to show for it, they will be trying to bump that slump against a Canucks team that's still banged up and has a lot of travel miles on them already. Another thing that worries me? The Canucks record against the Hawks of late. They've won 10 straight against Chicago, and it just screams like it's gonna be one of those nights where the Canucks let one slip out of their grasp.
The problem the Hawks have is after a couple players not named Bedard, no one else is scoring. And getting some good goaltending from Spencer Knight so far this season might keep them in this, but it's similar to the issues the Canucks face: If they don't get a number of people going, this season's gonna be another disappointment.
LINEUPS
Here's what we found on the nhl dot com thingy:
Blackhawks projected lineup
Ryan Greene -- Connor Bedard -- Andre Burakovsky
Teuvo Teravainen -- Frank Nazar -- Tyler Bertuzzi
Ryan Donato -- Colton Dach -- Ilya Mikheyev
Oliver Moore -- Nick Foligno
Alex Vlasic -- Sam Rinzel
Matt Grzelcyk -- Connor Murphy
Wyatt Kaiser -- Artyom Levshunov
Louis Crevier
Spencer Knight
Arvid Soderblom
Scratched: Sam Lafferty
Injured: Laurent Brossoit (hip), Jason Dickinson (upper body)
Canucks projected lineup
Evander Kane -- Elias Pettersson -- Conor Garland
Jake DeBrusk -- Lukas Reichel -- Brock Boeser
Drew O'Connor -- Aatu Raty -- Kiefer Sherwood
Arshdeep Bains -- Max Sasson -- Linus Karlsson
Quinn Hughes -- Tyler Myers
Marcus Pettersson -- Filip Hronek
Elias Nils Pettersson -- Tom Willander
Kevin Lankinen
Thatcher Demko
Scratched: P.O. Joseph, Mackenzie MacEachern
Injured: Victor Mancini (undisclosed), Filip Chytil (concussion protocol), Jonathan Lekkerimaki (upper body), Teddy Blueger (lower body), Nils Hoglander (lower body), Derek Forbort (undisclosed)
The big news tonight is that Conor Garland will return to the lineup after sitting out the entire road trip for the Canucks. Teddy Blueger is returning to practice, and Jonathan Lekkerimaki isn't far behind. With Jason Dickinson out of the lineup for the Hawks, the addressing of his chickenshit hit from behind will have to wait til the next time these teams meet, but given Tyler Bertuzzi's histrionics after the loss a few weeks ago, I wouldn't be surprised for him to be cranking the idiot dial to '11' tonight.
GAME DAY CHATTER
GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN
Well, with ol' DICK Cheney shufflin' off this mortal coil to take up residence in eternal damnation, I thought it was fitting to bring out this MINISTRY classic from back when he was forever making the world an angrier, more dangerous place. Rot in hell, you bastard.
Enjoy the game, folks. Fuck fascism! Go Canucks Go!
These assholes again, already? Well, after another glorious night of making a not that great Minnesota Wild team look like the 1970's Montreal Canadiens, the Canucks can wrap up this road swing with a do over in Nashville.
Vancouver Canucks (6-7-0) vs. Nashville Predators (5-6-2)
Bridgestone Arena, Nashville TN
5:30 pm PST; 8:30 pm EST
TV: Sportsnet Pacific
Radio: Sportsnet 650
It's mind boggling, really. Good or bad, the Canucks just can't seem to win in Minnesota. And it's not even hard fought losses. They come into this arena and get clowned, every single time. And with the Oilers, Blackhawks and Kraken all playing tonight, the Canucks need, yes need, a win to keep from getting lost in the shuffle. I know you're probably thinking to yourself "What the hell, old man? It's just the start of November!", right? I would suggest you read Thursday's piece on why if things don't change, this season is as good as done.
Now, is it possible they can keep pace? Oh, sure. I mean, they are getting some much needed help to the NHL's most injured lineup tonight.
While they still have a lot of missing pieces, getting the Captain back tonight is a huge boost for the Canucks, both defensively and offensively, and especially on that sputtering power play.
The last time these teams met, the Preds rode a big game from Juuse Saros and a goal that just barely crossed the line to eek out a win, and I would not expect a repeat of that tonight. After getting fed their lunch in Minnesota, they're gonna be pissed off and fired up tonight. And thankfully, they can put that awful performance (apart from Drew O'Connor, who got off the schneid in a big way) behind them.
LINEUPS
That nhl dot com thingy has the possible lineups up:
Canucks projected lineup
Jake DeBrusk -- Elias Pettersson -- Brock Boeser
Evander Kane -- Lukas Reichel -- Kiefer Sherwood
Drew O'Connor -- Aatu Raty -- Mackenzie MacEachern
Arshdeep Bains -- Max Sasson -- Linus Karlsson
Quinn Hughes -- Filip Hronek
Marcus Pettersson -- Tom Willander
Elias Nils Pettersson -- Tyler Myers
Thatcher Demko
Kevin Lankinen
Scratched: Kirill Kudryavtsev, P.O. Joseph
Injured: Conor Garland (undisclosed), Victor Mancini (undisclosed), Filip Chytil (concussion protocol), Jonathan Lekkerimaki (upper body), Teddy Blueger (lower body), Nils Hoglander (lower body), Derek Forbort (undisclosed)
Predators projected lineup
Filip Forsberg -- Ryan O'Reilly -- Luke Evangelista
Erik Haula -- Steven Stamkos -- Jonathan Marchessault
Michael Bunting -- Fedor Svechkov -- Matthew Wood
Tyson Jost -- Michael McCarron -- Ozzy Wiesblatt
Brady Skjei -- Nick Perbix
Nicolas Hague -- Nick Blankenburg
Spencer Stastney -- Justin Barron
Juuse Saros
Justus Annunen
Scratched: None
Injured: Roman Josi (upper body), Adam Wilsby (lower body), Cole Smith (upper body)
P.O. Joseph is out as Hughes returns, which speaks volumes about how well Tom Willander has looked since getting called up from Abbotsford. No other changes it would appear, and it will be Demko vs Saros in the creases.
GAME DAY CHATTER
GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN
After that shitty loss, and that baseball game Saturday night, I am sure you could use a pick me up. So here's the latest from ELECTRIC CALLBOY. 'Tanzneid' is ridiculous, silly, stupid and annoyingly catchy. I love it. Turn this one up and jump around for a bit. You'll feel better.
Enjoy the game. Fuck fascism. Go Canucks Go!
It was almost predictable that someone was going to get hurt on Thursday night in St Louis, but 33 seconds into the game? And with Brock Boeser the latest casualty, things looked pretty grim for the Canucks, but it appears someone forget to tell that to Kiefer Sherwood.
Vancouver Canucks (6-6-0) vs. Minnesota Wild (3-6-1)
Grand Casino Arena, St Paul, MN
4:00 pm PST; 7:00 pm EST
TV: Sportsnet 360
Radio: Sportsnet 650
The odds were already against the Canucks heading into this one, and when Brock Boeser was felled by a friendly fire point shot just 33 seconds in, you could hardly blame any Canucks fan for walking away at that point. I mean, looking at their injury list, and one of the guys actually producing goes down?
It then became crucial for two things to happen if they hoped to escape from Missouri with two points: Someone needed to step up and score some goals, and Kevin Lankinen would have to put in his best performance of the season so far. And with the team missing some of their most potent offensive weapons, Lankinen did exactly that, making 36 saves along with three in the shootout to help the Canucks to a win on the strength of an inspirational Kiefer Sherwood hat trick.
And there was almost another much needed bit of good news, as it appeared that Evander Kane had actually come through with a big goal when it was needed, as he scored with less than four minutes to go in the third. But, in keeping with the way he's performed this season, the goal was waved off, taken down on a sopping wet tissue soft as the goalie it was scored on a goaltender interference call against Mackenzie MacEachern. To say the contact made affected Binnington's ability to stop that puck is simply laughable. All these years and the league still has no bloody idea what goaltender interference is.
Anyway, after Sherwood rang his shootout attempt off the crossbar, and Brayden Schenn lost the puck on his attempt on Lankinen, Jake DeBrusk ended it and gave the Canucks a much needed victory to even their record for the month of October at 6-6-0. They move on to Minnesota to take on one of the NHL's surprise teams after the first month, and not in a good way.
Many had the Wild pegged as legit contenders for the ultra tough Central division this year, but they've struggled out of the gate, thanks to some surprisingly poor goaltending from Filip Gustavsson, and the NHL's worst penalty killing, which neutralizes their lethal power play. They're scoring at the same pace as the Canucks, but letting almost a whole goal more per game so far, and that's not a recipe for success. They have some outstanding offensive talent, but if Gustavsson can't get it figured out and quick, the teams ahead of them in the race for Western Conference playoff spots are gonna leave them in the dust.
The Canucks are going to have to come up with a better penalty killing effort than we saw Thursday night, as the Wild are one of the NHL's best on the power play. Kirill Kaprizov has scored 8 of his 16 points so far this season on the man advantage, and after going one for three against St Louis, another night of sub par penalty killing could sink them.
LINEUPS
From that nhl dot com thingy, here's what they think is gonna happen roster wise this evening:
Canucks projected lineup
Jake DeBrusk -- Elias Pettersson -- Brock Boeser
Evander Kane -- Lukas Reichel -- Kiefer Sherwood
Drew O'Connor -- Aatu Raty -- Mackenzie MacEachern
Arshdeep Bains -- Max Sasson -- Linus Karlsson
Marcus Pettersson -- Filip Hronek
Elias Pettersson -- Tom Willander
P.O Joseph -- Tyler Myers
Thatcher Demko
Kevin Lankinen
Scratched: Kirill Kudryavtsev
Injured: Conor Garland (undisclosed), Victor Mancini (undisclosed), Quinn Hughes (lower body), Filip Chytil (concussion protocol), Jonathan Lekkerimaki (upper body), Teddy Blueger (lower body), Nils Hoglander (lower body), Derek Forbort (undisclosed)
Wild projected lineup
Kirill Kaprizov -- Marco Rossi -- Marcus Johansson
Vladimir Tarasenko -- Joel Eriksson Ek -- Matt Boldy
Marcus Foligno -- Ryan Hartman -- Vinnie Hinostroza
Yakov Trenin -- Ben Jones -- Tyler Pitlick
Jonas Brodin -- Brock Faber
Jake Middleton -- Jared Spurgeon
Zeev Buium -- David Jiricek
Filip Gustavsson
Jesper Wallstedt
Scratched: Daemon Hunt, Danila Yurov
Injured: Mats Zuccarello (lower body), Nico Sturm (back), Zach Bogosian (lower body)
Boeser is going to be good to go for tonight, and it will be Thatcher Demko back in the crease tonight for the Canucks. That shootout win for Lankinen, his second skills competition victory of the season, has moved him into the top spot for shootout save percentage in NHL history. He's stopped 38 of 44 attempts for an .864%, while the next active goalie on the list? Thatcher Demko (43 of 53- .811%)
GAME DAY CHATTER
GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN
We're goin' local today, as UNLEASH THE ARCHERS dropped a Halloween treat for us yesterday, with a killer cover of the TYPE O NEGATIVE classic 'Black No. 1'. Fantastic job on this one, breathing new life into a Halloween metal classic!
And just so you know, we're totally going to forgive you if you watch the Blue Jays game tonight, as they try and make history and win the World Series for the first time in 32 years. I mean, I am probably gonna go with the winner take all Game 7 baseball game over the Canucks and Wild.
So...
Enjoy the game(s). Fuck fascism. Go Canucks Go! Okay, Blue Jays! Let's Play Ball!
