Could there be any more fitting ending for another glorious shit show of a season than playing Game 82 in the home of the NHL's pride and joy shit show?
VANCOUVER CANUCKS (37-37-7) vs ARIZONA COYOTES (28-40-13)
7:00 PM PST
MULLETT ARENA, TEMPE, AZ
TV: SN PACIFIC. RADIO: SN650
Sweet relief is here, friends.
And with the final game of the season, we begin the embarrassingly familiar cycle of pondering if the Canucks will ever be so lucky as to win the draft lottery, followed by who they'll choose with that disappointing mid-round pick, followed by hoping that this is the summer that the organization finally comes to its senses and dismantles this obviously broken machine, trying to build something that will actually work.
I am so weary of this process.
Usually, we'd be putting together articles like our Nucks Misconduct Outreach Program, where we look at teams you might wanna root for in the post season, or Law & Order (redacted), Screw that. If you wanna do that this year, fill your boots. Me? I'm fucking tired of trying to feel good for other teams fans. Absolutely and utterly done with it. I want to feel that way. I want my hockey team to be more than a source of angst and frustration.
And sadly, none of these issues will be addressed. The Aquilini family have zero interest in rebuilding, because that would be an admission that the things they did and the people they hired were failures. Billionaires have a really difficult time with admitting fault, as you may have noticed. Until that changes, we'll just keep repeating this cycle.
LINEUPS
Courtesy of the ol' nhl.com, this is the end of the season lineup.
Canucks projected lineup
J.T. Miller -- Elias Pettersson -- Phillip Di Giuseppe
Andrei Kuzmenko -- Sheldon Dries -- Conor Garland
Dakota Joshua -- Nils Aman -- Brock Boeser
Aidan McDonough -- Jack Studnicka -- Anthony Beauvillier
Quinn Hughes -- Kyle Burroughs
Scratched: Vitali Kravtsov, Guillaume Brisebois
Injured: Filip Hronek (shoulder), Vasily Podkolzin (hand), Christian Wolanin (lower body), Travis Dermott (undisclosed)
Coyotes projected lineup
Clayton Keller -- Travis Boyd -- Nick Schmaltz
Matias Maccelli -- Barrett Hayton -- Lawson Crouse
Liam O'Brien -- Jack McBain -- Christian Fischer
Milos Kelemen -- Jan Jenik -- Brett Ritchie
Connor Mackey -- Juuso Valimaki
Victor Soderstrom -- Josh Brown
Scratched: Connor Ingram
Injured: Zack Kassian (upper body), Laurent Dauphin (upper body)
Some more lineup shuffling, which means that Rick Tocchet is totally trying to win this game. Winning the last one changed their lottery odds from 5% to 3.5%, so I dunno, maybe just stop already?
GAME DAY CHATTER
Find an Arizona band that isn't FLOTSAM & JETSAM, SACRED REICH or ATROPHY? Challenge accepted! How about a little SAINTBREAKER. Their new one 'Unrelenting Violence' is making some serious waves on the indie metal scene, with an offering of breakneck death-tinged thrash, lots of punk and grind overtones here too. I think I might have found a new addition to my regular playlist in these guys.
On behalf of all of us here at NM, thank you for sticking with us through the most challenging year of our existence. We really wish things would have allowed us to go live before the end of the season, but as a man once said, it is what it is. We'll still have playoff open threads, in spite of it all. We'll try and dissect this mess of a season, look forward to the draft, and get you as prepared as we can for next year. And cheer on the Abbotsford Canucks as they begin their journey in the AHL Playoffs. Go Canucks Go.
