GAME DAY PREVIEW: Canucks @ St Louis

Vancouver Canucks @ St Louis Blues

Scottrade Center, St Louis, MO

When: 5:00 PM PST

Where to watch: SNP, FS-MW

Where to listen: Sportsnet650

Opposition Blog: St Louis Game Time

If you found yourself somewhat conflicted by last night’s result, you’re not alone. Yes, it was probably more important that the Canucks lose that game last night, but even if the Canucks didn’t play as well as they did, the Chicago Blackhawks certainly looked like they wanted absolutely nothing to do with getting two points last night. Add in the eyebrow raising moment at the end of the game where Henrik Sedin and Patrick Sharp exchanged pleasantries in a way that seemed a little beyond the scope of a normal regular season game.

Not saying this is exactly what it looks like, but you might want to ensure you don’t miss the remaining eight games of the season.

TANKWATCH 2018: The win last night moved them into 29th place (tiebreaker over Arizona) meaning a loss combined with a Buffalo win against Montreal would see the Canucks move to 30th as Arizona would have the game in hand. It was pretty much a bad night across the board for the Canucks last-place aspirations, as the Red Wings, Senators and Coyotes all lost in regulation.

St Louis is battling hard for a Wild Card spot, and currently sit 3 back of Anaheim and Colorado for the last 2 spots. They could get a big boost though if Vladimir Tarasenko is ready to return to the lineup tonight. Tarasenko missed Wednesday’s game with an upper body injury, but we should probably expect him back.

The Canucks will be without Brendan Leipsic tonight, injured in that hit by Chicago’s Andreas Martinsen, who then was able to get some pretty cheap free shots in on Derrick Pouliot, who stepped in on Martinsen after the late, uncalled hit on Leipsic.

Reid Boucher, who was scratched in favour of Tyler Motte, will draw back in tonight.

Here’s the projected lineups from theprovince.com

CANUCKS’ POSSIBLE LINES

Nikolay Goldobin, Bo Horvat, Jake Virtanen

Daniel Sedin, Henrik Sedin, Sam Gagner

Reid Boucher, Brandon Sutter, Sam Gagner

Jussi Jokinen, Nic Dowd, Tyler Motte

Defensive pairings

Alex Edler, Chris Tanev

Michael Del Zotto, Troy Stecher

Derrick Pouliot, Alex Biega

Expected starting goalie: Anders Nilsson

Sick bay: Brendan Leipsic (upper body); Ben Hutton (foot infection); Brock Boeser (back); Sven Baertschi (shoulder); Loui Eriksson (rib); Brendan Gaunce (lower body); Markus Granlund (ankle surgery); Derek Dorsett (neck surgery, retired)

BLUES’ POSSIBLE LINES

Jaden Schwartz, Brayden Schenn, Vladimir Tarasenko

Patrik Berglund, Kyle Brodziak, Alex Steen

Dmitri Jaskin, Ivan Barbashev, Vladimir Sobotka

Nikita Soshnikov, Oskar Sundqvist, Tage Thompson

Defensive pairings

Carl Gunnarsson, Alex Pietrangelo

Vince Dunn, Colton Parayko

Joel Edmundson, Robert Bortuzzo

Expected starting goalie: Jake Allen

Sick bay: Robby Fabbri (torn ACL), Carter Hutton (neck), Scottie Upshall (sprained MCL), Jay Bouwmeester (hip)

GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN

The best damn band to ever hail from St Louis. Here’s Anacrusis off ‘Manic Impressions’ with their cover New Model Army’s “I Love The World” and from ‘Screams And Whispers’ a live version of ‘Grateful’ from the band’s 2010 reunion show in St Louis.