Rebuild Rules: You may want the rebuild to be over by game 21 - it won't - that is not how this works.

RANGERS (11-8-1) at CANUCKS (3-16-1)

9 p.m. ET; TVAS, SN, MSGSN

A game against the Rags in the ROG on Friday, the 13th. What could go wrong?

For those of us fed up with the slow pace of the Nucking rebuild who are also devotees of Heinz von Foerster, today is our lucky day. End of the Nucking rebuild. End of the world. The end.

Back in 1960, Heinz predicted that November 13th, 2026 to be the day of a world-ending apocalypse. Years before the Canucks entered the league. A coincidence? We'll see.

On the other side of human guessification, hockey astrologers state this is an auspicious date. In their usual vague terms, won't say specifically if it's auspicious for Canucks. Not that helpful.

Before you guffaw at the frailties of human thought outside sports, hockey has its own code of suspicious superstitions. The jinx of shutouts - by mentioning shutout in-game. The insurmountable lead jinx - by mentioning the lead in-game. The unchanging of stinky hockey socks. Never mention it.

Tonight's Nucking Strategy:

Start the 1st like it's the last 10 minutes of the 3rd!

Start the 2nd like it's the last 10 minutes of the 3rd!

Start the 3rd like it's the last 10 minutes of the 3rd!

Rangers projected lineup

Gabe Perreault -- Mika Zibanejad -- Alexis Lafreniere

Tye Kartye -- J.T. Miller -- Pavel Dorofeyev

Will Cuylle -- Noah Laba -- Oliver Bjorkstrand

Eeli Tolvanen -- Glenn Gawdin -- Jaroslav Chmelar

Vladislav Gavrikov -- Adam Fox

Marcus Pettersson -- Braden Schneider

Matthew Roberson -- Scott Morrow

Dylan Garand

Joonas Korpisalo

Scratched: Marcel Del Gaizo, Luke Glendening, Matt Rempe

Injured: Sean Durzi (undisclosed), Igor Shesterkin (lower body), Alberts Smits (upper body), Adam Sykora (lower body), Joseph Veleno (lower body)

Canucks projected lineup

Jake DeBrusk -- Elias Pettersson -- Brock Boeser

Paul Cotter -- Filip Chytil -- Jonathan Lekkerimaki

Liam Ohgren -- Marco Rossi -- Linus Karlsson 

Drew O'Connor -- Max Sasson -- Brendan Gallagher

Zeev Buium -- Filip Hronek

Jamie Oleksiak -- Guillaume Brisebois

Elias Pettersson -- Tom Willander

Luke Schenn 

Leevi Merilainen

Kevin Lankinen

Scratched: Victor Mancini, Jacob Quillan, Arshdeep Bains

Injured: Thatcher Demko (hip)

Status report

Smits is week to week; the defenseman was placed on injured reserve Tuesday. ... Durzi continues to practice with the team, but the defenseman will miss his seventh straight game. ... Gawdin made his NHL debut in a 3-1 win at the Calgary Flames on Wednesday after being recalled from Hartford of the American Hockey League on Tuesday. ... Chytil, who has missed five games with a shoulder injury, and Willander, who missed four with a lower-body injury, each appear to be ready to return, though Canucks coach Manny Malhotra said each needed to be evaluated after an optional morning skate Friday.

GAME DAY CHATTER

The grand strategy is safe. For now. We can focus on other things.

GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN

Have you noticed the lack of Oud in the game day hymnals? I did. And just in case this is the last game of the season, the decade, the eternal timeline - for maybe the last time, Anouar can get us in the oud.

Go Canucks Go.