The Canucks are finding different ways to win, and tricking this wary and weary fan base into believing they can do the impossible. It is a trick, right?

VANCOUVER CANUCKS (36-28-10) vs ARIZONA COYOTES (22-46-5)

ROGERS ARENA, VANCOUVER, BC

7:00PM PST

TV: SPORTSNET PACIFIC. RADIO: SPORTSNET 650

OPPOSING BLOG: FIVE FOR HOWLING

It could all go south tonight, remember that. The Canucks are refusing to bow out of the 2021-22 NHL season, and it’s pretty remarkable. After backing themselves into a corner that left them with the option of winning every game left on their schedule to make the playoffs, they appear to have said “Fuck it, let’s do it!”

They’re still going to need some help along the way, and getting some regulation wins out of Minnesota over the Dallas Stars and Calgary over Vegas would definitely help. At the end of the day though, they have to keep winning, especially against teams that are not all that good. And they don’t get any worse than the Arizona Coyotes.

Look, I know there are actual hardcore Coyotes fans out there, and they have my sympathies. I am sure that they’d love nothing more than for their team not to be perpetually awful because of a lifetime of shitty management and ownership. Trust me when I say we can relate. This is a game the Canucks must win, and if it falls apart on this game, it was never meant to be.

One of the things that was great about the last game was we got one of those epic Elias Pettersson games. He’s been consistently good since Bruce Boudreau was hired, but we’d been waiting for one of those ‘best player on the ice’ nights from him and he did not disappoint. These kinds of nights help when your goalie is having a not so epic night, and while Thatcher Demko had a decent night, it wasn’t his best, and he can’t have too many more like that along the way if they hope to do the thing.

The Canucks have played two games against Arizona so far this season, winning both of them by identical 5-1 scores.

LINEUPS

Courtesy of nhl.com, this is what we’re getting served up for tonight’s disasterpiece:

Coyotes projected lineup

Nick Ritchie — Travis Boyd — Nick Schmaltz

Michael Carcone — Barrett Hayton — Phil Kessel

Matias Maccelli — Nathan Smith — Andrew Ladd

Alex Galchenyuk — Jack McBain — Loui Eriksson

Shayne Gostisbehere — Dysin Mayo

Vladislav Kolyachonok — Anton Stralman

J.J. Moser — Kyle Capobianco

Karel Vejmelka

Harri Sateri

Scratched: Jay Beagle, Cam Dineen

Injured: Christian Fischer (lower body), Lawson Crouse (hand), Liam O’Brien (upper body), Antoine Roussel (lower body), Jakob Chychrun (lower body)

Canucks projected lineup

Conor Garland — Bo Horvat — Elias Pettersson

Vasily Podkolzin — J.T. Miller — Alex Chiasson

Jason Dickinson — Juho Lammikko — William Lockwood

Sheldon Dries — Brad Richardson — Kyle Burroughs

Oliver Ekman-Larsson — Tyler Myers

Quinn Hughes — Luke Schenn

Brad Hunt — Travis Dermott

Thatcher Demko

Jaroslav Halak

Scratched: Nic Petan

Injured: Tanner Pearson (upper body), Brock Boeser (upper body), Tucker Poolman (upper body), Matthew Highmore (upper body), Nils Hoglander (lower body)

It looks like there’ll be no changes from the lineup the Canucks dressed on Tuesday against Vegas.

GAME DAY CHATTER

GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN

You may remember us introducing you to Ukrainian metallers JINJER a couple weeks back, and today we’ve got a great collaboration between their singer Tatiana Shmayluk and Polish death metal kings DECAPTITATED. ‘Hello Death’ is from Decapitated’s album ‘Cancer Culture’, which hits stores on May 27th via Nuclear Blast Records.

Enjoy the game, everyone! Go Canucks Go! Slava Ukraini!