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!