Game Day Preview #59: Feb 25, 2023- Canucks vs Boston

VANCOUVER CANUCKS (23-30-5) vs BOSTON BRUINS (44-8-5)

4:00 PM PST

ROGERS ARENA, VANCOUVER, BC

TV: SN PACIFIC, SN WEST, CITY. RADIO: SN650

This shouldn’t have to happen.

No, I’m not actually talking about how the Canucks are going to get fed their lunch by the best team in the NHL tonight, although it does make me wonder whether I can sit through this one. I’m talking about the way this game appears on the schedule. The Bruins, as you may know, are on their West Coast swing at the moment, having played a pretty entertaining game in Seattle the other night. And naturally, when teams visit Seattle, they’re also gonna make their stop in Vancouver. Just one problem there, chief. They’re in the middle of a Central division road trip. But the NHL, in its infinite wisdom, and willingness to pander to some teams over others, decided that the Canucks should return home, so as not to incovenience the Bruins. And they bumped up the start time to a more Boston friendly 7pm Eastern start while they were at it. Was there not any other sacrifices that the Canucks should make for the league’s beloved Bruins? Make Elias Pettersson a healthy scratch? Tell Sportsnet to carry the NESN feed so we can all regale in whatever bullshit’s gonna come out of Jack Edwards’ mouth tonight?

So is it really that big of a deal? Well, when you consider that the Canucks are always one of the teams that put on the most miles, this trip adds a ridiculous amount to that total. If the Canucks next game were in Dallas, which is where they play Monday, the flight distance from St Louis to Dallas is 548 miles. Thanks to this lovely bit of scheduling, they instead flew home from St Louis (1770 miles) and then will head to Dallas tomorrow (1768 miles). So, instead of travelling the 548 to Dallas, they put on an additional 2990 miles for this one game. They could have tacked it on to the Bruins in January when they played the three California teams, but as well know all too well, the NHL simply doesn’t punish the Bruins for anything.

It’s a shame, because as far as weeks go, this one was actually not completely horrible for Canucks fans. We got the wins over the Flyers, and that Thursday night comeback in St Louis where Elias Pettersson, JT Miller and Andrei Kuzmenko clowned Jordan Binnington in the third period and walked out of St Louis with Binnington’s dignity and two points. After all that, this game is just gonna be a bummer, and we can all get back to remembering that the Canucks losing is the best thing for them right now. It’s just that losing to these guys still sucks so much.

LINEUPS

Bruins projected lineup

Brad Marchand — Patrice Bergeron — Jake DeBrusk

Pavel Zacha - David Krejci — David Pastrnak

Taylor Hall — Charlie Coyle — Nick Foligno

A.J. Greer — Trent Frederic - Garnet Hathaway

Dmitry Orlov — Charlie McAvoy

Hampus Lindholm — Brandon Carlo

Derek Forbort — Connor Clifton

Linus Ullmark

Jeremy Swayman

Scratched: Jakub Zboril, Matt Grzelcyk

Injured: Tomas Nosek (lower body), Vinni Lettieri (lower body)

Canucks projected lineup

Andrei Kuzmenko — Elias Pettersson — Anthony Beauvillier

Conor Garland — J.T. Miller — Brock Boeser

Vasily Podkolzin — Aatu Raty — Sheldon Dries

Dakota Joshua — Nils Aman — Jack Studnicka

Quinn Hughes — Ethan Bear

Christian Wolanin — Tyler Myers

Riley Stillman — Kyle Burroughs

Arturs Silovs

Collin Delia

Scratched: Luke Schenn, Guillaume Brisebois

Injured: Oliver Ekman-Larsson (ankle), Curtis Lazar (lower body), Thatcher Demko (groin), Travis Dermott (undisclosed), Ilya Mikheyev (torn ACL), Tanner Pearson (hand), Tucker Poolman (undisclosed)

So... I can’t say I’m surprised that they dealt Lockwood. A fresh start might be what he needs, as he appeared to have stalled out in his time here. Kravtsov was taken two spots after Quinn Hughes in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft. Sure, let’s see what he can do. Low cost, low risk on a kid who also might thrive from a change of scenery (as well as playing with guys he knows).

While the above nhl.com roster info says Delia is backing up Silovs tonight, that may not be the case:

GAME DAY CHATTER

GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN

If you’re gonna subject yourself to this game, I suggest you prepare accordingly and consume copious amounts of beer. And as luck would have it, Germany’s beer soaked thrash kings TANKARD just dropped a new video for their track ‘Beerbarians’. Crack a cold one, crank this one up and get ready for a long early evening of hockey.

Enjoy the game, if that’s possible. Go Canucks Go. Fuck the Bruins.