The Vancouver Canucks fell flat on their faces in a 2-0 shutout loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday night, and to make matters worse, they're stranded in Raleigh, N.C., until Saturday due to incoming snow storms. They also have to play the Toronto Maple Leafs in Toronto on Saturday night.
Even with Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes back from their injuries and Thatcher Demko back between the pipes, the Canucks still were not good enough to take down the Hurricanes on Friday. Fourteen total shots on goal is not going to get the job done against a team as good as Carolina is, and the Canucks paid the price.
Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal scored in his third consecutive game, including a Thursday-night hat trick against the Maple Leafs, with a first-period goal against the Canucks. Staal would also assist Andrei Svechnikov's third-period goal; his two goal contributions turned out to be too much for the Canucks to overcome--a theme these days.
The other Elias Pettersson brings some positive news to the Canucks
The Maple Leafs, who recently welcomed back superstar forward Auston Matthews, are 6-4-0 in their last 10 games and will play hosts to the Canucks on Saturday night. This will be the first of two meetings between these two teams this season.
It is possible that if the Canucks cannot make it to Toronto on time, the NHL will reschedule the game. Due to the tragic wildfires in California, the Calgary Flames-Los Angeles Kings game in Los Angeles was postponed.