Oh boy, another overtime loss for the Canucks. And this one stung, because they went toe to toe with one of the NHL's best. Not much time to dwell though, as they head to Raleigh to take on the Canes tonight.

Vancouver Canucks (18-12-10) vs. Carolina Hurricanes  (25-15-2)

4:00 pm PST; 7:00 pm EST

TV: Sportsnet Pacific

Radio: Sportsnet 650

The Canucks played one of their better games of the season on Wednesday night in Washington, holding a very good Capitals team to just seven shots in the final forty minutes of regulation time. And once again, it simply wasn't enough.

You simply couldn't ask for a better demonstration of how much Quinn Hughes means to this team when you look at what happens the moment he steps off the ice during overtime. Nearly, if not all of their OT losses have come with Hughes on the bench. It's a damning statement on how much of a drop off there is in defensive talent past Hughes, though with Filip Hronek getting ready to rejoin the team soon, that should be a major boost. They still need to add pieces on the back end though, and in order to get anyone who will make an impact, they'll have to part with a forward of equal calibre, and that's not necessarily something they can afford.

And again, while he played a solid game when he was needed to, Kevin Lankinen was not able to give the Canucks a save when they needed it the most. And with the news that Thatcher Demko is ready to go and will likely be getting the start, that means Lankinen will get the crease against Toronto tomorrow, which is interesting. They'll be facing a Canes team coming off a 6-3 thumping of the Leafs last night. Perhaps being a little tired will work in the Canucks favour, as they're a team that likes to use their speed to exploit teams defensively.

The Canes are strong at home, so essentially we need to see a repeat from what the Canucks did on Wednesday, only with more scoring and definitely not allowing power play opportunities to go to waste as they did against the Caps. One thing that could help that? The return of Elias Pettersson. He's also expected to be in the lineup tonight, and hopefully he can pick up where he left off, as he'd been playing well leading up to the injury. Getting this team back to healthy just might be able to help them start putting together a string of wins, without this, they're going to fall out of playoff contention as Calgary, St Louis and Utah nip at their heels.

One fun thing to keep in mind: the Raleigh area is under a winter storm warning, and things could get pretty dicey as the Canucks need to head to Toronto following the game. Once again, hell of a job by the NHL schedule makers.

LINEUPS

Scrawled on the back of a flyer advertising a kegger at some NC State frat house, we found the potential lineups for tonight. We have been informed the exact same info is available on nhl dot com, though...

Canucks projected lineup

Jonathan Lekkerimaki -- J.T. Miller -- Brock Boeser

Jake DeBrusk -- Pius Suter -- Conor Garland

Kiefer Sherwood -- Teddy Blueger -- Danton Heinen

Nils Hoglander -- Max Sasson -- Phillip Di Giuseppe

Quinn Hughes -- Tyler Myers

Carson Soucy -- Noah Juulsen

Derek Forbort -- Vincent Desharnais

Kevin Lankinen

Thatcher Demko

Scratched: Erik Brannstrom, Guillaume Brisebois

Injured: Elias Pettersson (undisclosed), Filip Hronek (upper body), Dakota Joshua (lower body)

Hurricanes projected lineup

Seth Jarvis -- Sebastian Aho -- Jack Roslovic

Eric Robinson -- Jesperi Kotkaniemi -- Martin Necas

Andrei Svechnikov -- Jordan Staal -- Jordan Martinook

Juha Jaaska -- Jack Drury -- Jackson Blake

Jaccob Slavin -- Brent Burns

Dmitry Orlov -- Jalen Chatfield

Ty Smith -- Sean Walker

Dustin Tokarski

Pyotr Kochetkov

Scratched: Ty Smith, William Carrier

Injured: Tyson Jost (lower body), Frederik Andersen (knee), Shayne Gostisbehere (upper body)

As mentioned, Demko and Pettersson should be in the lineup, but apart from that, it's going to essentially be the same lineup we saw in Washington on Wednesday. The Canes are missing a couple important pieces in Frederik Andersen and Shayne Gostisbehere, and with Dustin "He's still in the NHL?" Tokarski likely to get the start, perhaps this game is one the Canucks can pull off?

GAME DAY CHATTER

The coach's thoughts heading into this contest... Ray Ferraro was on Donnie & Dhali to try and explain why the Canucks fall apart in extra time... A lot of talk about Mika Zabanejad of the Rangers nixing a trade to the Canucks for Miller, but it's from Nick Kypreos so take that with a grain of salt..

GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN

North Carolina's been the home to a ton of metal and hardcore bands, none as influential as Corrosion of Conformity. They've got a new release coming soon, but this is a cover off an older EP that I hadn't heard before. From the 1996 EP 'Drowning In A Daydream' EP, this is their version of CCR's 'Fortunate Son'

Enjoy the game. We'll be back tomorrow with a preview of the game against those bloody Leafs. Go Canucks Go!