GAME DAY PREVIEW- GAME SIXTY-NINE: Canucks vs St Louis- Mar 30, 2022

VANCOUVER CANUCKS (32-27-9) vs ST LOUIS BLUES (36-20-9)

ROGERS ARENA, VANCOUVER, BC

7:00PM PST

TV: SPORTSNET PACIFIC. RADIO: SPORTSNET 650

OPPOSING BLOG: ST LOUIS GAME TIME

While a chance at the playoffs has been a long shot, the Canucks 4-1 loss in St Louis Sunday night was a major blow to whatever chances they had. Unless they damn near run the table in their remaining fourteen games starting with tonight’s rematch against the Blues, they’ll miss the post-season for the seventh time in the last decade. Still, I suppose a glimmer of hope is better than what we had to endure last season, but the frustration that this team didn’t start rolling until the club cleaned house is warranted. I suppose I can understand blaming COVID on last year to give Benning and Green one more kick at the can, but I stand by my assertion that no matter how much fun it was, the Canucks making the playoffs through the play-in round did more harm than good. Benning and Green could have been replaced at that point, and a rebuild could have been well underway.

Still, they are where they are, and as long as they’re still alive I suppose we can hope. And it isn’t beyond the realm of possibility for a team to go from where Vancouver was to the playoffs, and you don’t have to look any further than the St Louis Blues for proof of that. In the 2018-19 season the Blues fired head coach Mike Yeo on Nov, 19th, and were in last place in the NHL on New Year's Day. They not only made the playoffs, but won the whole damn thing.

There’s still the possibility that the teams ahead of them will take the opportunity for post-season action out of the Canucks’ hands, so all the Canucks can do is win out and hope it’s enough. What they’re going to need is a better effort than we saw on Sunday, and while we get they were tired, at this point in the year, and knowing what was at stake it was still disappointing to watch.

LINEUPS

Blues projected lineup

Brandon Saad — Ryan O’Reilly — David Perron

Pavel Buchnevich — Robert Thomas — Vladimir Tarasenko

Ivan Barbashev — Brayden Schenn — Jordan Kyrou

Mackenzie MacEachern — Nathan Walker — Alexei Toropchenko

Nick Leddy — Colton Parayko

Marco Scandella — Justin Faulk

Niko Mikkola — Calle Rosen

Ville Husso

Jordan Binnington

Apart from Thatcher Demko getting the start tonight, both of these teams should roll the same lineups as Sunday night, but there is a possibility that Jason Dickinson could be cleared to return to the lineup tonight.

GAME DAY CHATTER

Gino Odjick will be in the house tonight, and you can bet that’s gonna have everyone fired up.

GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN

From their 2009 album ‘Breathing The Fire’ this is ‘Crushed Beyond Dust’ from Athens, Ohio’s SKELETONWITCH.

Enjoy the game, folks. Go Canucks Go! Slava Ukraini!