The Canucks have been playing somewhat better, but thanks to a losing skid are still around .500 since the 4 Nations Cup and that's simply not good enough to get them into the post season. They'll have to pretty much run the table AND hope that the red hot Blues finally cool off just to make it, which seems unlikely.
Vancouver Canucks (34-26-12) vs. Columbus Blue Jackets (32-29-9)
4:00 pm PST; 7:00 pm EST
TV: Sportsnet Pacific
Radio: Sportsnet 650
The win over the Islanders on Wednesday night was impressive for a number of reasons. With the pressure on, against a team in the exact same situation, the Canucks came out and played an outstanding road performance, making the most of their opportunities and again getting some outstanding goaltending from Thatcher Demko. Whatever the issues were with Demko earlier this season, they seem to be healed, as he's been outstanding in his last few outings. And they're going to need their All Star goaltender to be lights out if they want a sniff at this. The problem is, they've dug such a hole for themselves that it might not matter.
The St Louis Blues came from two goals down to win 3-2 over Nashville last night. How lucky are the Blues right now? Nashville had the potential game tying goal disallowed as the puck crossed the line a fraction of a second after the end of regulation. When you say the Canucks cannot buy a break right now, this is what it means. That's four in a row and seven wins in the last ten for the Blues, who have been the best team in the NHL since the 4 Nations break. All those overtime losses for the Canucks are indeed coming back to bite them on the ass, as they are still five points back of the Blues. The only good thing, is that they have two games in hand, one of which they will use tonight.
With Elias Pettersson and Nils Hoglander injured on this trip, the Canucks have needed to get some secondary scoring happening, and Wednesday was a perfect example of it, as they got goals from Aatu Raty, Teddy Blueger, and Derek Forbort (who has been playing some outstanding hockey of late), along with a pair of goals from Keifer Sherwood. Yes, we need to see a revitalized Brock Boeser continuing to light it up, and guys like Jake DeBrusk and Conor Garland contribute, but we're at least seeing a complete buy in from this team and confidence in their play that was missing for large chunks of this season.
They've got a massive game against the Jets on Sunday afternoon against a team that will be looking for a little payback after getting humbled by the Canucks in that 6-2 win in Vancouver March 18th, but they can't afford to take their eyes off Columbus. With the Jackets playing emotional hockey all year in tribute to the late Johnny Gaudreau, they'd love nothing more to add a Cinderella playoff run to the story of the season, and are by no means a push over. A win this afternoon will ensure a winning record on this road trip, and get them in position to come out of it with a potential 9 of a possible 12 points. With an insanely tough last 8 games where they face Dallas, Colorado, Minnesota and two against Vegas, they cannot afford to drop a single game the rest of the way.
Columbus comes into this one extremely well rested. They defeated the Islanders in a shootout Monday, which had snapped a six game losing streak for the Blue Jackets. One thing to be careful of, is giving up the first goal to the home team in this one. The Jackets are an impressive 18-2-3 when scoring first at home.
LINEUPS
From the totally not wonky and always works like a charm nhl dot com... here's what we could see today from these teams...
7 p.m. ET; FDSNOH, SNP
Canucks projected lineup
Jake DeBrusk -- Pius Suter -- Brock Boeser
Drew O'Connor -- Teddy Blueger -- Conor Garland
Dakota Joshua -- Aatu Raty -- Kiefer Sherwood
Linus Karlsson -- Nils Aman -- Jonathan Lekkerimaki
Quinn Hughes -- Filip Hronek
Marcus Pettersson -- Tyler Myers
Derek Forbort -- Elias Pettersson
Kevin Lankinen
Thatcher Demko
Scratched: Victor Mancini, Arturs Silovs, Max Sasson
Injured: Filip Chytil (concussion), Noah Juulsen (lower body), Elias Pettersson (undisclosed), Nils Hoglander (undisclosed)
Blue Jackets projected lineup
Dmitri Voronkov -- Sean Monahan -- Kirill Marchenko
Boone Jenner -- Adam Fantilli -- Kent Johnson
Cole Sillinger -- Justin Danforth -- Mathieu Olivier
Zach Aston-Reese -- Sean Kuraly -- Luke Kunin
Zach Werenski -- Dante Fabbro
Ivan Provorov -- Damon Severson
Denton Mateychuk -- Erik Gudbranson
Elvis Merzlikins
Daniil Tarasov
Scratched: Jordan Harris, Jack Johnson, Christian Fischer, Yegor Chinakhov, James van Riemsdyk, Jack Williams, Jake Christiansen
Injured: None
So it looks as though they're going to go with Kevin Lankinen in goal today and go back to Demko on Sunday, which makes sense to me. There's a possibility that Teddy Blueger is banged up, which has led to a call up of Max Sasson from Abbotsford. Other than that, there doesn't seem to be any other changes. On the other side of the ice, the Jackets are healthy, so much so that they have Jack Johnson and James van Riemsdyk listed as healthy scratches.
GAME DAY CHATTER
Woof. But, it makes it all the more impressive if they pull this thing off.
Great stuff here from Joey showing how much better things are with a strong development system in place with the Abbotsford Canucks. Manny Malhotra and his crew have kept things alive for the parent club this season by providing guys who can slot in and fill roles, everything that you want from your farm team.
It's not going to happen, but good god, that might be the funniest thing ever. And with the Oilers in a seeming free fall at the moment, it's genuinely not beyond the realm of possibility. Their lead over the Canucks shrinks to five points with a Canucks win tonight, though the Oilers would have a game in hand. I see they have two games against the Sharks and Ducks, but they also face Vegas, St Louis, Winnipeg and a pair against Los Angeles including a back to back with travel (In Winnipeg then home to LA). The longer they have Connor McDavid out, and continue playing poorly, the closer to a historic collapse we find them in. And that is genuinely a good thing.
Willander is expected to sign with the Canucks if Boston University loses this game, and we could very well see another potential piece of the future in the lineup down the stretch.
Genuinely sad to see them call it a day. I've always been a big believer in support for the other content creators, and felt that we're pretty damn lucky as Canucks fans to have so many quality writers, blogs and podcasts over the years. PON was absolutely one of the best, and I will miss them. On behalf of all of us here at NM, congrats on a hell of a run, and thank you!
GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN
Hey, it's that time where you 'stick to sports' people get mad at me. Here's the deal. We're in trouble in Canada, folks. Trump and his government are fascists. Full stop. No hyperbole. And with an election coming up, the CONservatives are asking us to believe that the people they've been supporting since before his first presidency are now against him? We're not that dumb, Pierre. Don't hand our nation, our future, over to a bunch of Quisling bastards who will bend the knee for their fascist idol. Here's Jello Biafra with Napalm Death, warning everyone the first time that asshole was in office, that things have to change.
Enjoy the game. Fuck Trump, fuck Musk, fuck fascism and fuck the USA! Go Canucks Go!
