CANUCKS (40-17-7) at GOLDEN KNIGHTS (33-22-7)

10 p.m. ET; SCRIPPS, SNP

The Canucks come to the end of the mini roadtrip with an opportunity to quietly win them all. And those wins are greatly needed as the Oilers continue to explode up the standings. The Canucks are 9 points ahead of the Oil but Edmonton have 4 games in hand. The trade deadline is fast approaching and the teams in the division are loading up. The Golden Knights pulled the trigger on getting Noah Hanifin to shore up their defense as Alec Martinez is on injured reserve. The Canucks deadline acquisition, Elias Lindholm, has not produced as expected, so his name seems to be back in the trade circles, which is a weird situation. On one hand, if he is not producing then he is expendable with that contract, but on the other hand, he has not had a lot of time to find a line to click with.

As we get closer to the playoffs and possible matchups, the Canucks/Vegas matchup is a very real possibility as a #1/WC1 or if the Canucks falter down the stretch, a #2 vs #3 matchup. I am not happy with this as the Canucks do not match well against this team. Vegas skates well and pushes the puck up quickly. Their defense is mobile and is willing to jump up in the offensive zone. Vegas has a decent PP and good PK. The Canucks need to find a way to get better chances on the PP when the other team applies a pressure strategy.

Canucks projected lineup

Ilya Mikheyev -- J.T. Miller -- Brock Boeser

Nils Hoglander -- Elias Pettersson -- Pius Suter

Vasily Podkolzin -- Elias Lindholm -- Conor Garland

Phillip Di Giuseppe -- Teddy Blueger -- Sam Lafferty

Quinn Hughes -- Filip Hronek

Carson Soucy -- Ian Cole

Nikita Zadorov -- Noah Juulsen

Thatcher Demko

Casey DeSmith

Scratched: Mark Friedman

Injured: Tyler Myers (lower body), Dakota Joshua (upper body)

Golden Knights projected lineup

Ivan Barbashev -- Jack Eichel -- Jonathan Marchessault

Chandler Stephenson -- William Karlsson -- Anthony Mantha

Paul Cotter -- Nicolas Roy -- Michael Amadio

Mason Morelli -- Byron Froese -- Keegan Kolesar

Noah Hanifin -- Alex Pietrangelo

Brayden McNabb -- Shea Theodore

Nicolas Hague -- Zach Whitecloud

Adin Hill

Logan Thompson

Scratched: Ben Hutton, Tobias Bjornfot

Injured: William Carrier (upper body), Pavel Dorofeyev (upper body), Brett Howden (upper body), Alec Martinez (lower body), Mark Stone (upper body)

Status report

Podkolzin was recalled from Abbotsford of the American Hockey League on Thursday. … Mantha and Hanifin each will make his Golden Knights debut after being acquired in trades, Mantha from the Washington Capitals on Tuesday, Hanifin from the Calgary Flames in a three-team deal Wednesday. ~ NHL.com

Game Day Battle Hymn.

Playing a team in Vegas gets us a band from Vegas....The Killers. And I am going to hope that the hockey gods can read my mind and get the Canucks a win against this team. Confidence is something that is hard to create and it's easy to destroy.

Go Canucks Go!