GAME DAY PREVIEW- Game 37: Canucks vs Pittsburgh

VANCOUVER CANUCKS vs PITTSBURGH PENGUINS

7:00PM PST ROGERS ARENA, VANCOUVER, BC

TV: SPORTSNET, SN1, SN360, CITY, CBC. RADIO: SN650.

OPPOSITION BLOG: PENSBURGH

The last time these teams played, things got a little stupid. And by a little, I mean a lot. A complete collapse in the 3rd period of a game they should have won. This will still be very fresh in their minds I am sure, and no doubt Travis Green and his staff will have reminded them though they probably didn’t mean to be told. The question is, will it matter?

I mean, give them credit, they did get two points on Thursday against a team they’d gotten a scant handful from in their short history by beating the Vegas Golden Knights, but they still gave up one by blowing a late one goal lead in the 3rd after a horrible penalty call given what didn’t get called in that game. It seems like everytime the Canucks play them, someone from Vegas accidentally on purpose tries to injure a Vancouver player. Last year, it was Alex Tuch’s oopsie head shot on Sven Baertschi that effectively ended his season and pretty much his time with the Canucks, maybe even his NHL days. Now, it’s Josh Leivo, who had been on a pretty good tear, playing the best he’d been for the Canucks since they brought him in. Leivo suffered a broken kneecap on this hit from Nick Holden.

No call, and on the next play Holden scored to tie the game at 3. It’s maddening, really. The officiating just seems to be getting worse when it comes to dangerous plays getting passed over, and the most minor of hooks and slashes being called. Anyway, Vegas is a garbage team and I will continue to shout this from the rooftops.

But with Leivo out, bad news turns to worse, as we’ll see in our look at tonight’s lines...

LINEUPS:

Penguins projected lineup

Jake Guentzel -- Evgeni Malkin -- Bryan Rust

Zach Aston-Reese -- Jared McCann -- Dominik Kahun

Dominik Simon -- Teddy Blueger -- Brandon Tanev

Alex Galchenyuk -- Joseph Blandisi -- Sam Lafferty

Jack Johnson -- Kris Letang

Marcus Pettersson -- John Marino

Juuso Riikola -- Chad Ruhwedel

Matt Murray

Tristan Jarry

Scratched: Thomas Di Pauli, Kevin Czuczman

Injured: Sidney Crosby (core muscle surgery), Nick Bjugstad (core muscle surgery), Brian Dumoulin (ankle), Patric Hornqvist (lower body), Justin Schultz (lower body)

Canucks projected lineup

J.T. Miller -- Elias Pettersson -- Brock Boeser

Tanner Pearson -- Bo Horvat -- Loui Eriksson

Antoine Roussel -- Adam Gaudette -- Jake Virtanen

Tyler Motte -- Jay Beagle -- Tim Schaller

Jordie Benn -- Christopher Tanev

Quinn Hughes -- Tyler Myers

Oscar Fantenberg -- Troy Stecher

Jacob Markstrom

Michael Dipietro

Scratched: Jalen Chatfield, Zack MacEwen

Injured: Josh Leivo (leg), Brandon Sutter (undisclosed), Thatcher Demko (concussion), Micheal Ferland (upper body), Alexander Edler (upper body), Tyler Graovac (lower body)

Yes, that’s Loui Eriksson on the 2nd line taking Leivo’s spot. And with Sutter, Ferland and Edler still out, this lineup seems like one that can be exploited all over again by the Penguins, who are on a roll at the moment, fresh off a victory in Edmonton where they held Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl off the scoresheet.

GAME DAY CHATTER:

GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN:

Gonna stick with Rob Halford again today, and go back in time to when he actually left Judas Priest. His first project after leaving them was a Pantera-ish slab of thrash with the band known as FIGHT, which also featured JP drummer Scott Travis. From the debut album ‘War of Words’ here’s ‘Into The Pit’.