The darkest fears of Canucks fans for this season are coming true, as they find themselves suffering from an ungodly number of injuries before we've even hit November. And with a three game road swing that starts tonight in St Louis, they'll have to try and get to .500 for the month of October in spite of one third of their lineup being unavailable due to injury.

Vancouver Canucks (5-6-0) vs. St Louis Blues (3-6-1)

Enterprise Center, St Louis, MO

5:00 pm PST; 8:00 pm EST

TV: Sportsnet Pacific

Radio: Sportsnet 650

At the start of the year, my assessment of this Canucks team was fairly clear: they could very likely compete for a playoff spot in the West, but a lot of things would have to go right. At the top of that list? Staying healthy. And whilst being fully aware of how this team has rolled through its 55 year existence, we placed a little bit of hope in that and waited for the season to start. And it looked like things were actually starting to fall into place on that last road trip. They'd won two straight heading into Washington, and while they came out of that game with the Caps with a third straight victory, they lost Filip Chytil. And then Teddy Blueger. Then Quinn Hughes, and Jonathan Lekkerimaki. Victor Mancini was next. And now, Conor Garland.

Eight roster players in all out of commission for varying lengths of time, and none of them have accompanied the team on this 3 games in 5 days trip. And if you thought October was a challenge, wait til you see November's schedule. If there's been a saving grace through all this, it's that Thatcher Demko has kept the Canucks in it, every night. Kevin Lankinen? Well, let's just say any time he wants to return to last year's form, couldn't possibly come soon enough. After a frustrating loss to the Rangers, maybe getting back on the road is what they need. Next man up mode in full effect as they look to start off tonight by getting some payback against a Blues team that is much like the Rangers, playing far below expectations.

If there's a difference between those two teams, it's that the Rangers are getting fabulous goaltending, and the Blues? Definitely not. We'll worry about Jordan Binnington and the Olympic implications when it's time, but neither he nor Joel Hofer have been near as good as they need to be this season.

So what are they going to need to come out of St Louis with two points tonight? Well, first off, Kevin Lankinen is going to have to put in his best performance of the season tonight. He's gotta be a wall, no doubt about it. They'll need Elias Pettersson, who has done well in his career against the Blues, to continue that. And Kiefer Sherwood will need to make the most of his promotion to the top 6 on this trip. That, and defence by committee and winning the special teams battle, should lead to success.

LINEUPS

From the nhl dot com thing, here's what we should see on the ice tonight:

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

Kevin Lankinen

Thatcher Demko

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)

Blues projected lineup

Pavel Buchnevich -- Brayden Schenn -- Jimmy Snuggerud

Dylan Holloway -- Pius Suter -- Oskar Sundqvist

Mathieu Joseph -- Dalibor Dvorsky -- Jordan Kyrou

Alexey Toropchenko -- Nick Bjugstad -- Nathan Walker

Philip Broberg -- Colton Parayko

Cam Fowler -- Justin Faulk

Tyler Tucker -- Logan Mailloux

Jordan Binnington

Joel Hofer

Scratched: Alexandre Texier, Matthew Kessel

Injured: Robert Thomas (upper body), Jake Neighbours (leg)

The Canucks had to put yet another call to the farm, bringing Mackenzie MacEachern up from Abbotsford, and he will be in the lineup tonight on the third pairing with Aatu Raty and Drew O'Connor. It looks like the D pairings are remaining the same, though. This Blues team took three of four meetings against the Canucks last season, all in overtime, so don't be surprised if this one goes beyond sixty minutes again tonight. The Blues might not be as banged up as the Canucks, but they are missing two fairly important pieces in Robert Thomas and Jake Neighbours.

GAME DAY CHATTER

GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN

On this date in 1985, ANTHRAX released their sophomore album 'Spreading The Disease', and it was the album that broke them big in the metal world, thanks in part to a ton of airplay on MTV for the video for 'Madhouse'. It was the second appearance of vocalist Joey Belladonna, the first being the Armed and Dangerous EP that had come out earlier in the year. Belladonna replaced Neil Turbin, who is still touring these days, and recently played shows in Montreal and Toronto. From that album, here's that video for 'Madhouse'.

Enjoy the game, everyone. Fuck fascism! Go Canucks Go!