GAME DAY PREVIEW- GAME THREE: Canucks @ Detroit- Oct 16, 2021

VANCOUVER CANUCKS (1-0-1) vs DETROIT RED WINGS (0-0-1)

LITTLE CAESARS ARENA, DETROIT MI

4:00PM PST

TV: SPORTSNET PACIFIC. RADIO: SPORTSNET 650

OPPOSING BLOG: WINGING IT IN MOTOWN

The first back to back of the season comes early, as the Canucks, fresh off a 5-4 SO win in Philadelphia, are in Detroit to take on the Red Wings. There probably won’t be any lineup changes for tonight, save for in goal as we can expect Jaroslav Halak to get his first start for the Canucks after Thatcher Demko picked up his first win of 2021-22 last night. No word on when we could see Brock Boeser back into the lineup after missing the last half of the exhibition schedule with an undisclosed injury, but my guess is Tuesday in Buffalo.

This is also a special weekend, as the Abbotsford Canucks play their first exhibition game, taking on the Bakersfield Condors at 7pm.

The Red Wings were in a pretty wild one in their season opener, losing 7-6 in OT to Tampa, a game that saw Tyler Bertuzzi score goals, and an incident with Dylan Larkin and Tampa’s Mathieu Joseph that will see Larkin out for today, serving a one game suspension. While it sucks for the Wings, this is definitely good news for the Canucks to go up against a team without its best player in the lineup. Also, go get vaccinated already, Bertuzzi.

Sadly it won’t be the first time the Canucks play local legend Troy Stecher. He was a healthy scratch in the game against Tampa, but you would have to think he can get in for the first match against his former club.

The Red Wings have been hanging around the NHL’s basement along with the Canucks and others for a while now, but they might be starting to get things back on track. A young core that they can build around with Larkin, Bertuzzi and good mix of experienced veterans could see the Wings start to claw their way back up the standings soon. In the meantime, the Canucks should still find this one a winnable game this afternoon.

And if you think that this isn’t an important game, ponder this for a moment:

Make hay now in the event Vegas struggles without two of their best players. Amazing to think that the chances for the Canucks could change so early in the season, so let’s hope they can continue to play well.

LINEUPS

Courtesy of nhl.com, this is maaaaybe what we’ll see today:

Canucks projected lineup

J.T. Miller — Elias Pettersson — Nils Hoglander

Tanner Pearson — Bo Horvat — Conor Garland

Matthew Highmore — Jason Dickinson — Juho Lammikko

Justin Dowling — Vasily Podkolzin — Alex Chiasson

Oliver Ekman-Larsson — Tyler Myers

Quinn Hughes — Tucker Poolman

Jack Rathbone — Kyle Burroughs

Jaroslav Halak

Thatcher Demko

Scratched: Nic Petan, Brad Hunt, Luke Schenn

Injured: Brandon Sutter (illness), Tyler Motte (upper body), Brock Boeser (undisclosed), Brady Keeper(leg)

Red Wings projected lineup

Tyler Bertuzzi — Robby Fabbri — Lucas Raymond

Adam Erne — Pius Suter — Filip Zadina

Sam Gagner — Michael Rasmussen — Vladislav Namestnikov

Givani Smith — Mitchell Stephens — Carter Rowney

Danny DeKeyser — Filip Hronek

Nick Leddy — Moritz Seider

Marc Staal — Gustav Lindstrom

Thomas Greiss

Alex Nedeljkovic

Scratched: Troy Stecher, Jordan Oesterle

Suspended: Dylan Larkin

GAME DAY CHATTER

GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN

We can’t talk about metal and punk and Detroit without first mentioning the MC5. One of pre-metal’s loudest acts, the Motor City 5 made a statement with the album ‘Kick Out The Jams’, and the title track that shook 1969 to its knees. The song has been covered by everyone from Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters to Bad Brains and Entombed. And it’s Entombed’s version we’re gonna go with today. Enjoy the game, and here’s to early season winning streaks! Go Canucks Go!