Now out of a wildcard playoff spot only by a tiebreaker, the Vancouver Canucks (30-24-11) have an opportunity to leapfrog Calgary with a juicy matchup against the lowly Chicago Blackhawks (20-37-9) at 7 p.m. at Rogers Arena on Saturday night.
The Canucks recently got their captain, Quinn Hughes, back from injury, and it appears Tyler Myers is approaching full health now, too. Things are finally starting to go Vancouver's way with the season hanging in the balance; the rest is up to the players to get the job done on the ice, starting with Chicago on Saturday night.
Canucks Game Lineup
Nils Hoglander - Elias Pettersson - Jake DeBrusk
Drew O'Connor - Filip Chytil - Brock Boeser
Dakota Joshua - Pius Suter - Conor Garland
Nils Aman - Teddy Blueger - Kiefer Sherwood
Quinn Hughes - Filip Hronek
Marcus Pettersson - Tyler Myers
Derek Forbort - Victor Mancini
Arturs Silovs is expected to spell Kevin Lankinen and serve as the Canucks' starting goalie against the Blackhawks on Saturday night. The Canucks are 9-1-0 in their last 10 games against Chicago and 5-0-0 in their last five, so Silovs, who is 1-0-0 in his career against the Blackhawks, could not ask for a better matchup.
Silovs has lost four of his last five starts for the Canucks and has allowed four or more goals in three of those starts.
Blackhawks Game Lineup
Colton Dach - Jason Dickinson - Connor Bedard
Teuvo Teravainen - Ryan Donato - Ilya Mikheyev
Landon Slaggert - Nick Foligno - Frank Nazar
Lukas Reichel - Joe Veleno - Tyler Bertuzzi
Alex Vlasic - Wyatt Kaiser
Alec Martinez - Artem Levshunov
Ethan Del Mastro - Connor Murphy
Arvid Soderblom is expected to be the Blackhawks' starting goalie against the Canucks on Saturday night. Soderblom, now in a timeshare with recent trade acquisition Spencer Knight, is 8-15-7 this season despite a respectable 3.05 GAA and .905 save percentage on this bad Blackhawks team.
How to watch the Canucks game
Saturday night's Canucks game will be streamed on CBC, Sportsnet, CITY, TVAS2, and Chicago Sports Network+. For fans unable to watch the Canucks game, Sportsnet 650 will be the radio broadcast available for your listening.