10 p.m. ET; BSSC, SNP, CITY, SN1
If you go back to all the Game Previews that I have written this year and were to count the times I have said that the game was a "must-win", how many times do you think that would be? Ten times....fifteen times...more?
Well get ready for it....."Tonight is a must win game." Seriously, it is. (*This only applies if you believe that being in first place in the division matters.) A victory gets the Canucks closer to playing a wild card team...of course the separation between 3rd place and the second wild card is one point. A victory against the Kings would be a great confidence boost against a team that they could face in round one. Coach Taco believes that each of these last games have to be the focus of the team and not the possible team they play in the first round.
There is a lot of talk on the old Tweet-tweet about the Norris race. Quinn vs Makar! Reporters talking to other reporters about how they will vote and then creating a controversy to write about. I won't get to far into the weeds on this topic as you can go to almost every other website and get an opinion.
I will say this, Quinn Hughes is pretty good. We should keep him for awhile.
Canucks projected lineup
Nils Hoglander -- Elias Pettersson -- Brock Boeser
Dakota Joshua -- J.T. Miller -- Conor Garland
Ilya Mikheyev -- Teddy Blueger -- Vasily Podkolzin
Phillip Di Giuseppe -- Pius Suter -- Sam Lafferty
Quinn Hughes -- Filip Hronek
Carson Soucy -- Tyler Myers
Nikita Zadorov -- Ian Cole
Casey DeSmith - not Thatcher Demko
Arturs Silovs
Scratched: Mark Friedman, Noah Juulsen, Nils Aman
Injured: Thatcher Demko (lower body), Elias Lindholm (upper body)
Kings projected lineup
Quinton Byfield -- Anze Kopitar -- Adrian Kempe
Trevor Moore -- Phillip Danault -- Viktor Arvidsson
Kevin Fiala -- Pierre-Luc Dubois -- Alex Laferriere
Trevor Lewis -- Blake Lizotte -- Arthur Kaliyev
Mikey Anderson -- Drew Doughty
Vladislav Gavrikov -- Matt Roy
Andreas Englund -- Jordan Spence
Cam Talbot
David Rittich
Scratched: Akil Thomas, Jacob Moverare
Injured: Alex Turcotte (upper body), Carl Grundstrom (lower body)
Status report
The Canucks did not hold a morning skate Saturday. … Di Giuseppe and Suter each could return after being scratched when Vancouver dressed 11 forwards and seven defensemen in a 2-1 win at the Arizona Coyotes on Wednesday. … Danault is expected to return after missing four games because of an upper-body injury. … Turcotte, a center, practiced in a non-contact jersey Saturday but will miss his ninth straight game. ... Talbot is expected to make his sixth start in eight games. - NHL.com
Thatcher Demko a no-go tonight. He is working out and skating, but the question becomes, how many games before the playoffs is good enough to get him back into the groove? There are no easy games left if you really want 1st place in the division, so while Casey DeSmith has done a good job in Demko's absense....he is no Demko.
Game Day Battle Hymn
As pointed out in my post yesterday, the Canucks have some special teams problems, but they continue to be a .600 team over the past 15 games. Finding different ways to win will be the message to the players as they get nearer and into the playoffs. So let's stick with the message...steady as she goes. Shout out Paul Reubans.
Go Canucks Go!
