GAME DAY IN THE BUBBLE PREVIEW- CANUCKS VS BLUES: GAME TWO

VANCOUVER CANUCKS vs ST LOUIS BLUES

3:30PM PDT THE BUBBLE @ ROGERS PLACE, EDMONTON, AB

TV: SPORTSNET, NHL NETWORK, FS-MW. RADIO: SN650.

OPPOSITION BLOG: ST LOUIS GAME TIME

4 down, 15 to go. It will take 19 wins without dropping 4 to any one team to win the Stanley Cup this year, and the Canucks took another step Wednesday night with a big 5-2 win over the St Louis Blues. Bo Horvat led the way with 2 goals, they got 2 point nights from J.T. Miller, Brock Boeser and Tanner Pearson, a goal from Elias Pettersson, and the game winner from Troy Stecher, whose emotional celebration in honour of his recently deceased father shook Canucks Nation to its very core. You can sit there and be mad about the ill-advised tweet they made mocking reactions to the Miller trade, but if you’re still talking about it today other than to say “moving on...”, you need to re-focus.

Focus on the Canucks having won 4 straight now. Focus on them using their special teams to make a difference. Focus on this team, that looked so bloody lost not that long ago now finding ways to grind out wins. Is it possible this all goes south, and they don’t win another game in this series? Of course. But dammit, it’s downright inspirational the way this team has bought in on Travis Green’s message: “Why not us?”

There’s going to be push back tonight, naturally. The Blues are going to try and work the officials to get even more power plays. They’re going to try and take liberties against Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes. And they’re gonna throw everything they have at Jacob Markstrom tonight. The key for the Canucks is to keep their composure, do their best to stay out of the box and continue feasting on the Blues PK. And they need to continue to frustrate the Blues by clogging up the shooting lanes and blocking shots.

LINEUPS

From nhl.com, here’s what we should see today:

Canucks projected lineup

J.T. Miller — Elias Pettersson — Brock Boeser

Tanner Pearson — Bo Horvat — Loui Eriksson

Antoine Roussel — Brandon Sutter — Jake Virtanen

Tyler Motte — Jay Beagle — Zack MacEwen

Alexander Edler — Troy Stecher

Quinn Hughes — Christopher Tanev

Oscar Fantenberg — Tyler Myers

Jacob Markstrom

Thatcher Demko

Scratched: Olli Juolevi, Justin Bailey, Jordie Benn, Jalen Chatfield, Louis Domingue, Adam Gaudette, Tyler Graovac, Brogan Rafferty

Unfit to play: Micheal Ferland, Josh Leivo, Tyler Toffoli

Blues projected lineup

Jaden Schwartz — Brayden Schenn — Vladimir Tarasenko

Zach Sanford — Ryan O’Reilly — David Perron

Oskar Sundqvist — Robert Thomas — Tyler Bozak

Mackenzie MacEachern — Jacob de la Rose — Troy Brouwer

Carl Gunnarsson — Alex Pietrangelo

Marco Scandella — Colton Parayko

Vince Dunn — Justin Faulk

Jordan Binnington

Jake Allen

Scratched: Ivan Barbashev, Jordan Kyrou, Ville Husso, Robert Bortuzzo, Klim Kostin, Austin Poganski, Niko Mikkola, Derrick Pouliot, Jake Walman

Unfit to play: Sammy Blais, Alexander Steen

GAME DAY CHATTER:

GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN:

Some more Vancouver metal for you, this time it’s thrashers M16. This is off a live ep recorded in 2014 at Bully’s Studios in New Westminster. Not sure if they’re still active, but they do have a bandcamp site up, so check ‘em out. Go Canucks Go!