GAME DAY PREVIEW- Game 26: Canucks @ Pittsburgh

VANCOUVER CANUCKS vs PITTSBURGH PENGUINS

4:00PM PST PPG PAINTS ARENA, POTTSBURGH, PA

TV: SPORTSNET PACIFIC. RADIO: SN650.

OPPOSITION BLOG: PENSBURGH

Monday’s game was pretty disappointing, wasting a pretty spectacular goaltending performance from Thatcher Demko in a game where the Canucks just spent most of the game playing as though they weren’t really engaged in the whole ‘let’s win this game’ process.

And as we saw after the loss in Dallas last week, Travis Green is responding to the loss with a potential lineup change. Nikolay Goldobin has been recalled from Utica, though we may not know until gametime if he’s going to be in the lineup. He’s definitely earned the call up, putting up an impressive 20 points in 19 games for the Comets, and doing everything they’ve asked of him when sending him down to start the season. The question is, do they give him a chance to prove he’s ready to play consistently enough to stay?

As far as the Penguins go, it speaks volumes about their depth that they can continue to keep chugging along without a player of the magnitude of Sidney Crosby. They’re as solid as ever, and it’s going to be a real test for the Canucks to see if they can turn things around the way they did against Nashville and Washington after a bad game.

LINEUPS:

CANUCKS:

Tanner Pearson - Elias Pettersson - Brock Boeser

J.T. Miller - Bo Horvat - Zack MacEwen

Tim Schaller - Adam Gaudette - Josh Leivo

Loui Eriksson - Tyler Graovac - Jake Virtanen

Alexander Edler / Tyler Myers

Quinn Hughes / Chris Tanev

Jordie Benn / Troy Stecher

Scratches: Jay Beagle, Nikolay Goldobin, Oscar Fantenberg

Injured: Brandon Sutter, Micheal Ferland, Tyler Motte, Antoine Roussel

While there’s a good chance Goldobin is in tonight, Brandon Sutter is still not ready to return, thus denying a chance to showcase his eventual return to his old club. And there’s this to further fuel speculation Goldy is in:

And from our pals over at Pensburgh, here’s what we could see tonight from the Penguins:

Jake Guentzel - Evgeni Malkin - Bryan Rust

Alex Galchenyuk - Jared McCann-Brandon Tanev

Dominik Kahun -Sam Lafferty - Patric Hornqvist

Zach Aston-Reese - Teddy Blueger - Dominik Simon

Brian Dumoulin/ Kris Letang

Jack Johnson / John Marino

Marcus Pettersson / Chad Ruhwedel

Expected scratches: Juuso Riikola (healthy), Zach Trotman (healthy)

Injured: Sidney Crosby (hernia surgery, IR), , Nick Bjugstad (lower body injury, IR), Justin Schultz (lower body injury)

Keys for tonight are simple: Get back to what was working this season. The defensive effort has been poor at best of late, and I am looking at guys like Tyler Myers and Alex Edler to step up and lead the way today. They need to be wary of that second line, because you just know that McCann is going to want to show JB what a foolish man he is. Also, I can think of no better way to celebrate Thanksgiving that American Hero Brock Boeser reminding whoever’s in goal tonight how “lucky” he is.

GAME DAY CHATTER:

GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN:

So, this is Deaner from the movie FUBAR, with his band NIGHTSEEKER and a song called “Shotgun Beers”. Playing this today because a) it’s freakin’ awesome and b) it’s gonna make a certain kid from Abbotsford score tonight.