The Canucks go at it against the top dogs in the Pacific Division when the Vegas Golden Knights come calling to Rogers Arena. The Knights will try to solidify a hold on home ice throughout the Western Conference playoffs; they presently have a three point cushion in that race over the Dallas Stars who host the Seattle Kraken Tuesday evening.
For the Canucks it’s a matter of staying on top of a completely different set of tasks, that of building an identity, a confidence, and the systems that will carry them into what they hope will be a successful start to next season.
Gradually more and more new faces will make their way into the line-up. Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet said he expects to see recently acquired defenceman Filip Hronek in the Vancouver line-up for the first time against the San Jose Sharks on Thursday.
Recently signed college winger and Canucks 2019 7th-round NHL Draft choice Aidan Mcdonough could follow soon after.
Canucks AM Line-up
This was the look from the Canucks at the morning skate via radio man Brendan Batchelor:
Phil Di Giuseppe – J.T. Miller – Brock Boeser
Andrei Kuzmenko – Elias Pettersson – Anthony Beauvillier
Dakota Joshua – Nils Åman – Conor Garland
Vitali Kravtsov – Sheldon Dries – Vasily Podkolzin
Quinn Hughes – Noah Juulsen
Guillaume Brisebois – Ethan Bear
Christian Wolanin – Tyler Myers
Thatcher Demko
— Miller and Pettersson have 12 points over the last eight Canucks games. Hughes has eleven and Kuzmenko has ten over their last ten games.
Golden Knights Expected Line-up
Ivan Barbashev – Jack Eichel – Jonathan Marchessault
Reilly Smith – William Karlsson – Pavel Dorofeyev
Paul Cotter – Chandler Stephenson – Phil Kessel
Brett Howden – Teddy Blueger – Michael Amadio
Alec Martinez – Alex Pietrangelo
Brayden McNabb – Shea Theodore
Nicolas Hague – Zach Whitecloud
— Smith has a career high eight-game point streak.
— Puck drop is a little after 7 pm at Rogers Arena.
Enjoy the Hockey Action !!
