Folks, we have arrived at the doors of the holiday break! The Vancouver Canucks (16-10-7) play their final game before the holiday break at home, hosting the San Jose Sharks (11-19-6) at Rogers Arena at 6 p.m. on Monday night. This will be the second of four meetings between the Canucks and the Sharks this season; the Canucks will visit San Jose again on Feb. 6.
Thatcher Demko, who is expected to start against the Sharks on Monday night, is a perfect 11-0-0 in his career against San Jose, posting a 2.17 GAA and .924 save percentage in those games. The Canucks could not have asked for a better opponent to try and turn their fortunes against; they are 9-1-0 in their last 10 games against San Jose. And two points on Monday night would go a long way towards establishing security in a playoff spot.
Canucks Game Lineup
Jake DeBrusk - Elias Pettersson - Nils Hoglander
Phil Di Giuseppe - J.T. Miller - Brock Boeser
Dakota Joshua - Pius Suter - Conor Garland
Danton Heinen - Teddy Blueger - Kiefer Sherwood
Quinn Hughes - Tyler Myers
Carson Soucy - Noah Juulsen
Derek Forbort - Vincent Desharnais
Thatcher Demko is likely to start for the Canucks one last time before the holiday break, with Kevin Lankinen backing him up against the Sharks on Monday night.
Sharks Game Lineup
Mikael Granlund - Macklin Celebrini - Tyler Toffoli
William Eklund - Alex Wennberg - Will Smith
Nikolai Kovalenko - Luke Kunin - Fabian Zetterlund
Barclay Goodrow - Nico Sturm - Ty Dellandrea
Mario Ferraro - Timothy Liljegren
Shakir Mukhamadullin - Jan Rutta
Henry Thrun - Cody Ceci
Top goalie prospect Yaroslav Askarov will start for the Sharks against the Canucks in the wake of Vitek Vanecek's upper-body injury. The recently acquired Alexandar Georgiev will serve as Askarov's backup on Monday night.
How to watch the Canucks game
Monday night's Canucks game will be streamed on Amazon Prime Video and NBC Sports California. For fans unable to watch the Canucks game, Sportsnet 650 will be the radio broadcast available for your listening.