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VANCOUVER CANUCKS (19-24-3) vs EDMONTON OILERS (31-17-2)
ROGERS ARENA- VANCOUVER, BC
7:00PM PST
TV: SNP, SNW. RADIO: SPORTSNET 650
OPPOSING BLOG: THE COPPER AND BLUE
UPDATE: The Canucks announced that defenceman Jack Rathbone will make his NHL debut tonight.
It’s exhausting, isn’t it?
From the barrage of people that try and tell you that things aren’t as bad as they appear, to simply just watching the burnt out husk trying to be passed off as an NHL team right now, it is physically draining being a Canucks fan.
A couple years ago, we were told that this was when we were going to see the fruits of Jim Benning’s labour. With Bo Horvat, Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser, Quinn Hughes and Thatcher Demko as the new core, this team would be ready to start being a threat again, and after a surprise playoff run, it looked like maybe that might be the case. Sure, they needed some changes, but Jim was gonna address that in the off season and then? All gravy, baby!
If you have an important task to complete at work, one that’s identified as vital, and you don’t get it done because you “ran out of time”, how would your boss react? Would you be fired? Reprimanded? I am pretty sure that nearly all of us would find ourselves facing consequences if we tried to say this, but what about Jim Benning?
I can’t actually say for sure, because apart from a few tweets, we hear nothing from ownership. Are they disappointed? Angry? Hungry for change? Who the fuck knows? All we can assume is that they’re not, because Benning and Weisbrod continue to be gainfully employed. It’s been seven years. We still are waiting for the rebuild. Instead of asking why some Canucks fans hate the team because they criticize the ownership and management, you should ask yourselves why you’re okay with failure being rewarded, and critical years of some of the best players this team has ever seen being wasted because of the utter garbage they’re “complimented” with.
LINEUPS
Courtesy of nhl.com, this is the best guess at what the lineups will be:
Oilers projected lineup
Leon Draisaitl — Connor McDavid — Jesse Puljujarvi
Dominik Kahun — Ryan Nugent-Hopkins — Kailer Yamamoto
Josh Archibald — Jujhar Khaira — Tyler Ennis
James Neal — Ryan McLeod — Alex Chiasson
Scratched: Alex Stalock, William Lagesson
Injured: Devin Shore (undisclosed), Gaetan Haas (undisclosed), Slater Koekkoek (collarbone), Zack Kassian (undisclosed), Joakim Nygard (undisclosed), Kris Russell (lower body)
Canucks projected lineup
Nils Hoglander — J.T. Miller — Brock Boeser
Tanner Pearson — Bo Horvat — Kole Lind
Matthew Highmore — Tyler Graovac — Jayce Hawryluk
Jimmy Vesey — Travis Boyd — Zack MacEwen
Alexander Edler — Nate Schmidt
Scratched: Madison Bowey, Jalen Chatfield, Jack Rathbone
Injured: Brandon Sutter (upper body), Marc Michaelis (upper body), Jake Virtanen (leave), Tyler Motte (undisclosed), Antoine Roussel (lower body), Elias Pettersson (upper body), Jay Beagle (undisclosed), Justin Bailey (shoulder), Micheal Ferland (head)
No changes of note apart from the creases, as we’ll see Mike Smith for the Oilers and Demko for the Canucks tonight. It’s good that Travis Green is giving Olli Juolevi an opportunity to shake off a pretty rough outing last night, but honestly he doesn’t have a lot of options, does he?
GAME DAY CHATTER
Post-game availability expected to include Miller, Schmidt & Holtby, followed by Coach Green.#Canucks | @TheProvince https://t.co/4rr0lIHSNU
— Vancouver #Canucks (@Canucks) May 4, 2021
GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN
I love me a good cover tune, so here’s Chilean bangers NUCLEAR ripping through a rendition of DEATH’s ‘Evil Dead’.
Enjoy the game. Go Canucks Go.