GAME DAY IN THE BUBBLE PREVIEW- CANUCKS VS GOLDEN KNIGHTS: GAME TWO

VANCOUVER CANUCKS vs VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS

7:30PM PDT THE BUBBLE @ ROGERS PLACE, EDMONTON, AB

TV: SPORTSNET, CBC,NBCSN. RADIO: SN650.

OPPOSITION BLOG: KNIGHTS ON ICE

Just breathe, okay?

No one said this was going to be easy, and after a hard fought and emotional series win over St Louis with a short turn around time, the result of Sunday’s game is not that surprising. So let’s look forward at the stuff that matters, not the chirping or any of the other nonsense that went on. A win tonight and the Canucks are right back in this. Don’t forget, they got shutout in Game 1 against Minnesota, too.

Obviously they’re going to have to get a very disciplined Vegas team to take more penalties, and this is doable, as we saw the same scenario playing out against the Blues. They also need to keep their composure and not respond to Ryan Reeves and the rest of the Golden Knights chirp squad. I will say it’s pretty amusing to hear so many media people come out and talk about the 2011 Canucks arrogance, perceived or not, as a reason why people couldn’t get behind them, then those same talking heads gush about Vegas. We see you, and we don’t forget.

The Golden Knights made things miserable for the Canucks best players on Sunday, and when that was happening, Travis Green responded with line adjustments that helped create time, space and situations to allow his players to succeed. They’ll be ready to do the same tonight, guaranteed.

And, expect a bounce back game from Jacob Markstrom. He’s had a phenomenal season, one sub-par game where he got hung out to dry a bit by the team’s defensive play is hardly a reason to panic.

LINEUPS:

From nhl.com here’s what we can expect tonight:

Canucks projected lineup

J.T. Miller — Elias Pettersson — Jake Virtanen

Tanner Pearson — Bo Horvat — Brock Boeser

Antoine Roussel — Adam Gaudette — Brandon Sutter

Tyler Motte — Jay Beagle — Loui Eriksson

Alexander Edler — Troy Stecher

Quinn Hughes — Christopher Tanev

Oscar Fantenberg — Jordie Benn

Jacob Markstrom

Thatcher Demko

Scratched: Olli Juolevi, Justin Bailey, Jalen Chatfield, Louis Domingue, Tyler Graovac, Brogan Rafferty

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

Golden Knights projected lineup

Max Pacioretty — William Karlsson — Mark Stone

Reilly Smith — Paul Stastny — Jonathan Marchessault

Nick Cousins — Nicolas Roy — Alex Tuch

William Carrier — Chandler Stephenson — Ryan Reaves

Shea Theodore — Alec Martinez

Brayden McNabb — Nate Schmidt

Zach Whitecloud — Nick Holden

Robin Lehner

Marc-Andre Fleury

Scratched: Dylan Coghlan, Oscar Dansk, Reid Duke, Deryk Engelland, Nicolas Hague, Keegan Kolesar, Peyton Krebs, Jon Merrill, Gage Quinney, Patrick Brown

Unfit to play: Tomas Nosek

PREGAME CHATTER:

GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN:

In honour of The Metal God’s 69th birthday (nice!), here’s some classic Rob Halford vocal insanity as we throw some ‘Steeler’ off Judas Priest’s 1980 album ‘British Steel’. Go Canucks Go!