There's two ways to look at the Canucks season: One is to say they haven't played up to expectations (and that's not wrong), and the other is to say they've done pretty well given the number of major pieces missing.
Vancouver Canucks (10-6-3) vs. Boston Bruins (10-9-3)
4:00 pm PST; 7:00 pm EST
TV: Sportsnet
Radio: Sportsnet 650
Saturday may not have been the prettiest win of the season (Brady Tkachuk's face not withstanding), but it may have been the most meaningful. To come out of that with two points missing 4 all star players was pretty inspiring, especially after losing Quinn Hughes of all people, to a game misconduct.
What we saw was the Canucks top line of those left step up with a massive game, and a solid effort up and down the lineup, plenty of pushback against a Sens team trying to take liberties all night long (I mean for real, is there a bigger pissbaby in the NHL than Brady Tkachuk, other than his older brother?), and goaltending that held up just enough to get the win. Could they play better? For sure, and with Brock Boeser, JT Miller, Thatcher Demko and Hughes in the lineup, the Sens can't compete with this team. But sometimes it's about getting the win, not how you got it. You can keep track of style points of you like, but given the back story on this game, that was an impressive win.
And a massive game from Jake DeBrusk was something this team absolutely needed. He's been heating up after struggling to start the season, and his chemistry with Elias Pettersson and Kiefer Sherwood has been something to see. And the timing of DeBrusk being red hot is perfect as they roll into Boston to take on the struggling Bruins.
The big news tonight is the return of Brock Boeser to the Canucks lineup. He missed seven games following that bullshit headshot by LA's Tanner Jeannot. The Canucks will be happy to get Boeser back, as he's been having another solid start to the season. Unfortunately, that means the odd man out is Max Sasson, who had a fantastic first NHL game, with an assist on the Teddy Bleuger goal Saturday night.
The Bruins may not be struggling in the traditional sense, but despite the knowledge that their Cup window is starting to slam shut, they were still expected to be more competitive than this. Was it necessary to fire Jim Montgomery and replace him with Joe Sacco? Time will tell, but even with their current record, the fact that Montgomery wasn't given much of an opportunity to try and get his team to play out of the funk they're in to start the year does seem like an overreaction.
What they definitely did was screw up possibly the best one-two goaltending punch in the NHL, by letting Linus Ullmark go to Ottawa, and the nearly bungled re-signing of Jeremy Swayman has seen neither goalie playing up to their usual standards so far this year. I think if the Bruins don't turn it around and miss the playoffs, Cam Neely's days are done in Boston. And that's probably at least a year later than it should have been.
LINEUPS
The following lineup was scrawled on the side of Ben Affleck's Dunkin Donuts Iced Macchiato. Or maybe it was nhl dot com...
Canucks projected lineup
Jake DeBrusk -- Elias Pettersson -- Kiefer Sherwood
Dakota Joshua -- Pius Suter -- Conor Garland
Danton Heinen -- Teddy Blueger -- Brock Boeser
Arshdeep Bains -- Aatu Raty -- Nils Hoglander
Quinn Hughes -- Filip Hronek
Erik Brannstrom -- Tyler Myers
Carson Soucy -- Noah Juulsen
Kevin Lankinen
Arturs Silovs
Scratched: Max Sasson
Injured: Derek Forbort (knee), Vincent Desharnais (lower body)
Bruins projected lineup
Morgan Geekie -- Pavel Zacha -- David Pastrnak
Brad Marchand -- Elias Lindholm -- Justin Brazeau
Trent Frederic -- Charlie Coyle -- Marc McLaughlin
John Beecher -- Mark Kastelic -- Cole Koepke
Mason Lohrei -- Charlie McAvoy
Parker Wotherspoon -- Brandon Carlo
Nikita Zadorov -- Andrew Peeke
Jeremy Swayman
Joonas Korpisalo
Scratched: Tyler Johnson, Jordan Oesterle
Injured: Hampus Lindholm (lower body)
Tonight is the first of two meetings against last year's rentals for the playoffs, Nikita Zadorov and Elias Lindholm. I'm not so concerned about Lindholm, as he appears to be this year's Loui Eriksson, but Zadorov will be out to prove what a menace he can be if he's not on your side. Heads on a swivel, boys.
GAME DAY CHATTER
While Kevin Lankinen will start tonight, expect Thatcher Demko to be back before the end of this six game road swing... Pregame thoughts from Coach Tocchet... And Conor Garland... And a chat with the captain...
GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN
Those mad Irish lads GAMA BOMB are back with a new holiday banger, and it's in support of my preferred charity: Medicines Sans Frontieres. If you'd like to support them by purchasing the song or one of the great shirts they've made for this (100% of the proceeds goes to MSF) check out the links. Here's A Coffin For Christmas!
Enjoy the game, everyone! Go Canucks Go!