The Holiday break is over, and the Canucks are back at home after a surprising Eastern road swing. Are they really turning the corner after dealing away the franchise's best player, or was that just a dead cat bounce, and the tank will rumble forth?

Vancouver Canucks (15-18-3) vs. San Jose Sharks (17-17-3)

Rogers Arena, Vancouver, BC

7:00 pm PST; 10:00 pm EST

TV: Sportsnet Pacific, Sportsnet One, City TV

Radio: Sportsnet 650

The post Quinn Hughes era is weird, man. I don't think there's a soul alive that saw the Canucks rattling off four straight wins coming off that trade, especially not as convincingly as they did. But was that real, or just a little hiccup before the ship continues to sink to the bottom of the ocean?

One thing's for sure: Unlike other new additions this season, the players acquired in the deal for Hughes have made an immediate impact. Zeev Buium is not Quinn Hughes, but he is definitely going to be a 1st pairing defenceman on this club for a long time, and the fact that he's where he's at at the age of 20 is a really good thing. Liam Ohgren and Marco Rossi are showing signs of developing chemistry and fitting into the new systems, and have both contributed offensively for the Canucks since their arrival. Sure, the trade is gonna take a long time to get over, but the way the players that came back have been able to fit seamlessly into the lineup upon arrival takes some of that sting out.

And let's face it, if there was one thing that was going to help soothe the disappointment the fan base felt at having to see the best defenceman this club's ever had get traded away, winning four in a row for the first time this season definitely did the trick. Monday night saw them come back down to earth though, losing 5-2 to Rick Tocchet's Flyers in Philadelphia. They're back for three games in four nights as they host the Sharks tonight, head to Seattle for a Monday night tilt against the Kraken, then back home for a rematch against the Flyers.

So now the question remains? What's better: Pushing hard to catch up to a Wild Card slot that is still very much in their grasp, or for the losses to mount, with the possibility of a potential game changer available with one of the top three picks this summer in what should prove to be one of the deepest drafts in years? I still believe that getting fooled by a dead cat bounce and not continuing to focus on the future is the worst possible thing for the Canucks, they'd simply be replicating the mistakes of the Benning Era, tripping over the same damn rock. Do the hard work to make this team a contender. Trade the guys with value now and load up on picks, make this into something that's going to a legit threat in a few years time. You owe us that much.

The Canucks dropped a 3-2 decision to the Sharks in their last meeting, a game that saw the Canucks outshoot the Sharks, but get let down by poor penalty killing and an inability to capitalize on seven power plays during the game. It looks like the Canucks will have Elias Pettersson back in the lineup after missing eight games with an undisclosed injury. EP40's return will definitely give the power play a little more punch.

LINEUPS

From that nhl dot com thingy, this is what we should expect tonight:

Sharks projected lineup

William Eklund -- Macklin Celebrini -- Igor Chernyshov

Collin Graf -- Alexander Wennberg -- Tyler Toffoli

Jeff Skinner -- Ty Dellandrea -- Adam Gaudette

Barclay Goodrow -- Zack Ostapchuk -- Ryan Reaves

Dmitry Orlov -- John Klingberg

Mario Ferraro -- Shakir Mukhamadullin

Sam Dickinson -- Vincent Iorio

Yaroslav Askarov

Alex Nedeljkovic

Scratched: Nick Leddy

Injured: Vincent Desharnais (upper body), Philipp Kurashev (upper body), Will Smith (upper body), Timothy Liljegren (upper body)

Canucks projected lineup

Evander Kane -- Elias Pettersson -- Kiefer Sherwood

Jake DeBrusk -- Marco Rossi -- Brock Boeser

Drew O'Connor -- David Kampf -- Conor Garland

Liam Ohgren -- Max Sasson -- Linus Karlsson

Marcus Pettersson -- Filip Hronek

Zeev Buium -- Tyler Myers

Elias Pettersson -- Tom Willander

Thatcher Demko

Kevin Lankinen

Scratched: P.O Joseph, Aatu Raty, Nils Hoglander

Injured: Filip Chytil (concussion protocol), Teddy Blueger (lower body), Derek Forbort (undisclosed)

With EP40 making his return, that sees Hoglander in the press box, though the pressure will be on the guys in the bottom six to keep performing lest they be the next ones up.

GAME DAY CHATTER

GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN

Wednesday was a special day, as we celebrate the birth of our lord and saviour: Lemmy from Motorhead. And to pay tribute, here's UK thrashers DEVASTATOR with a ripping cover of 'Iron Fist' to honour the much missed mofo from Motorhead. I hope you all had a good holiday, and I wanna say thanks to my fellow NM dudes for covering things while a bout of COVID knocked me on my ass for a few weeks.

Enjoy the game, everyone. Fuck fascists! Fuck Trump! Go Canucks Go!