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!