With Montreal losing badly to St. Louis on Tuesday night, the Vancouver Canucks (33-26-12) are down, but not out. They will travel to Long Island to face a fellow playoff hopeful, the New York Islanders (32-28-10), at 4:30 p.m. at UBS Arena on Wednesday evening.
St. Louis actually did the Isles a favor with that win, as the latter is now just one point back of the Ottawa Senators for the second wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference with an equal number of games played.
As for the Canucks, they are five points back from St. Louis, and even with their two games in hand, it is a large mountain to climb. It starts on Wednesday with the Islanders.
Canucks Game Lineup
Jake DeBrusk - Pius Suter - Brock Boeser
Jonathan Lekkerimäki - Teddy Blueger - Conor Garland
Drew O'Connor - Aatu Raty - Kiefer Sherwood
Dakota Joshua - Nils Aman - Linus Karlsson
Quinn Hughes - Filip Hronek
Marcus Pettersson - Tyler Myers
Derek Forbort - Victor Mancini
After making a triumphant return against the New Jersey Devils on Monday night, Thatcher Demko reprises his role as the Canucks' starting goalie against the Islanders on Wednesday night. Demko, 29, made his first start for the Canucks since Feb. 8, making 22 saves on 25 shots in a 4-3 shootout win over the Devils in New Jersey and helping secure a season-saving two points.
With the win, Demko improved to 7-6-3 on the season with a 2.87 GAA, a .890 save percentage, and one shutout.
Islanders Game Lineup
Simon Holmstrom - Bo Horvat - Kyle Palmieri
Anders Lee - J.G. Pageau - Anthony Duclair
Pierre Engvall - Casey Cizikas - Hudson Fasching
Maxim Tsyplakov - Kyle MacLean - Marc Gatcomb
Adam Pelech - Noah Dobson
Alexander Romanov - Tony DeAngelo
Mike Reilly - Ryan Pulock
Perennial Vezina Trophy candidate Ilya Sorokin is confirmed to be the Islanders' starting goalie against the Canucks on Wednesday night.
With the Isles struggling, Sorokin is not posting the eye-watering numbers he had been putting up only two years ago, but the Russian star is still a respectable 27-20-6 this season with a 2.72 GAA, a .907 save percentage, and three shutouts.
Plus, the 29-year-old has already eclipsed 52 starts for the fourth consecutive season.
How to watch the Canucks game
Wednesday night's Canucks game will be streamed on MSG Sports Network, Sportsnet, and TVAS. For fans unable to watch the Canucks game, Sportsnet 650 will be the radio broadcast available for your listening.