GAME DAY PREVIEW- Game 60: Canucks vs Minnesota

VANCOUVER CANUCKS vs MINNESOTA WILD

7:30PM PST ROGERS ARENA, VANCOUVER, BC

TV: SPORTSNET PACIFIC. RADIO: SN650.

OPPOSITION BLOG: HOCKEY WILDERNESS

Since that brutal loss to Anaheim Sunday afternoon, there’s been a lot going on as the Canucks appear to be in some sort of mode (I don’t wanna call it panic, yet. Get back to me on Monday) as they try to salvage a playoff run that isn’t going to include Brock Boeser, Michael Ferland or Josh Leivo. Getting Tyler Toffoli is certainly going to help this situation, but there’s more work to be done both in terms of personnel and getting better efforts defensively out of the players they do have.

It’s a testament to what they have in Jacob Markstrom and Thatcher Demko that the Canucks can even discuss the possibility of playoffs this season, but they’re going to need to start paying their goalkeepers back with some better defence starting tonight against the Minnesota Wild. And speaking of disappointing games, the last meeting between these teams was just that, and something we think might want to be addressed. That game was a fiesty one, and we should expect more of the same tonight. The Canucks, to their credit, have shown they’re not going to be pushed around anymore following the garbage Matt Grzylcyk hit on Elias Pettersson a couple weeks back, and have been letting anyone who takes liberties with anyone in blue and green, clean hit or not, that they’re not going to be bullied. All we ever wanted was some pushback on the dirty hits, and we’re getting that. It’s nice to see.

There’s a bunch of changes to the lineup tonight, so let’s go over those, shall we?

LINEUPS:

Courtesy of nhl.com:

Wild projected lineup

Zach Parise — Eric Staal — Kevin Fiala

Alex Galchenyuk — Luke Kunin — Mats Zuccarello

Marcus Foligno — Joel Eriksson Ek — Jordan Greenway

Ryan Hartman — Ryan Donato — Mikko Koivu

Ryan Suter — Jared Spurgeon

Jonas Brodin — Matt Dumba

Brad Hunt — Carson Soucy

Devan Dubnyk

Alex Stalock

Scratched: Victor Rask, Greg Pateryn

Injured: None

Canucks projected lineup

J.T. Miller — Elias Pettersson — Tyler Toffoli

Tanner Pearson — Bo Horvat — Loui Eriksson

Antoine Roussel — Adam Gaudette — Jake Virtanen

Tyler Motte — Jay Beagle — Brandon Sutter

Quinn Hughes — Christopher Tanev

Alexander Edler — Troy Stecher

Jordie Benn — Tyler Myers

Jacob Markstrom

Thatcher Demko

Scratched: Guillaume Brisebois, Zack MacEwen

Injured: Brock Boeser (ribs), Oscar Fantenberg (concussion), Josh Leivo (kneecap), Micheal Ferland (concussion symptoms), Tyler Graovac (lower body)

Obviously Toffoli’s addition is the big news, but let’s not overlook the return of the other one, as Tyler Motte is back and will be on the 4th line tonight.

GAME DAY CHATTER:

GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN:

Old school metal legends CIRITH UNGOL have a new album coming out April 24th on Metal Blade Records entitled ‘Forever Black’, and they just dropped a track from that one called ‘Legions Arise’, and if you’re familiar at all with this band, you’ll be happy to hear they’re in fine form. This one’s an absolute stomper!