First line Hoggy? Canucks juggle lines ahead of mismatch against Colorado (Preview)

When in doubt, bring out the blender.

After blowing another multi-goal lead against the Vegas Golden Knights, head coach Bruce Boudreau shuffled his lines at practice on Tuesday.

At least it gives us something to talk about, but how much will it really matter?

The Canucks have shown us this season that they can score, but also that they’re an extremely fragile team who can’t defend and can’t get a save.

Just look at who they're sandwiched between at the bottom of the Western Conference.

NHL.com

Meanwhile in Colorado, the Avalanche have won 7 of their last 8 games despite dealing with a swath of injuries.

Their lone loss during that stretch came against the St. Louis Blues, who reiled on Jordan Binnington making 45 saves in a 3-2 win.

Thatcher Demko (or Spencer Martin?) will likely have to put forth a similar performance tonight if the Canucks are going to stand a chance.

VANCOUVER CANUCKS (6-10-3) @ COLORADO AVALANCHE (11-5-1)

BALL ARENA. DENVER, CO. 7:00 PM PST

TV: SPORTSNET /// RADIO: SN650

OPPOSITION BLOG: MILE HIGH HOCKEY

PROJECTED LINES

VANCOUVER CANUCKS

Here were the lines at practice on Tuesday:

The biggest story is that Nils Hoglander goes from the press box to the top line.

Not sure if that’s the solution here but hey, gotta try new things.

Brock Boeser was elevated to the Horvat/Miller line against the Golden Knights. Somehow, that made Horvat and Miller even more permissive defensively.

So of course, defensive ace Hoglander gets a turn.

Curtis Lazar get a promotion to third line centre, while Boeser falls down the lineup after a 30-minute promotion against Vegas.

Podkolzin joins Joshua and Aman on the fourth line. He really looks like he’s lacking confidence right now. The message from Bruce has to be to play more aggressive and stop being afraid of making mistakes. I’ve never seen Podkolzin play so tentatively since perhaps his early rookie days last season.

Oh, and of course, after the Canucks defence put forth another crappy performance, it appears as though Jack Rathbone and Kyle Burroughs were still the odd men out at practice on Tuesday.

Starting goalie: Thatcher Demko (unconfirmed)

Backup: Spencer Martin

Scratched: Sheldon Dries, Jack Rathbone, Kyle Burroughs

Injured: Tucker Poolman (LTIR), Travis Dermott (LTIR), Tanner Pearson (hand), Jack Studnicka (lower body)

COLORADO AVALANCHE

(based on lines from their last game, a 3-2 SO win against Dallas)

Forwards

Artturi Lehkonen — Nathan Mackinnon — Mikko Rantanen

Alex Newhook — Evan Rodrigues — Martin Kaut

Andrew Cogliano — JT Compher — Logan O’Connor

?? — ?? — Dryden Hunt

Defence

Devon Toews — Cale Makar

Jacob MacDonald — Josh Manson

?? — Erik Johnson

Starting goalie: Alexander Georgiev (unconfirmed)

Backup: Pavel Francouz

Scratched: ??

Injured: Sam Girard (lower-body), Bowen Byram (lower-body), Kurtis MacDermid (lower-body), Shane Bowers (upper-body), Gabriel Landeskog (knee), Darren Helm (hip), Valeri Nichushkin (ankle)

The Colorado Avalanche reassigned three players who played in their last game against the Dallas Stars in Andreas Englund (D), Anton Blidh (LW) and ol’ favourite Jayson Megna (C).

No reports yet on who might return.

According to CapFriendly, the Avalanche only have 10 healthy forwards and 5 healthy defencemen on the roster.

It might not matter who fills in those bottom-of-the-lineup roles. This team is, well, rolling despite a rash of injuries.

GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN

The Canucks might need a battle hymn like this to hype them up if they want to hang with the defending Stanley Cup champs tonight.

Enjoy the game, folks.