Despite a pretty impressive comeback to force overtime against the Devils, the Canucks started this latest Eastern road swing off with a loss. Tonight they’re at MSG to take on the Rangers before a game that’s just not gonna be any fun tomorrow on Long Island.

VANCOUVER CANUCKS (20-26-4) vs NEW YORK RANGERS (28-14-8)

5:00 PM PST

MADISON SQUARE GARDEN, NEW YORK, NY

TV: SPORTSNET. RADIO: SN650

While I am still not sure that what we saw from the Canucks on Monday night in New Jersey is the new normal under Head Coach Rick Tocchet, it had some entertainment value, at the very least. And while the whole 3 goals in :50 was hard to watch, the majority of their defensive play was, dare I say... tolerable? Perfect? No. Better? Certainly. The problem is still the same: When this team has mental lapses on defence, it ends up in the back of the net, every damn time.

And with a team that’s not only similar to the Devils in terms of offensive ability standing in their way tonight, it’s going to mean they’re going to have to be as close to perfect as possible to Escape From New York alive. Oh, and keep your heads on a damn swivel tonight, because Jacob Trouba is a goddamn menace.

The new lines in the wake of the Bo Horvat trade will need a bit of time to determine if they’re going to work, but it did appear that the Elias Pettersson/Andrei Kuzmenko/Anthony Beauvillier line had some immediate chemistry, and the bottom six had a strong night, with goals from Curtis Lazar and Phillip Di Giuseppe.

LINEUPS

This lineup prediction was being handed out in Times Square by a guy in a Shrek costume, or maybe it was on nhl.com:

Canucks projected lineup

Andrei Kuzmenko — Elias Pettersson — Anthony Beauvillier

Dakota Joshua — J.T. Miller — Conor Garland

Vasily Podkolzin — Sheldon Dries — Brock Boeser

Phillip Di Giuseppe — Nils Aman — Curtis Lazar

Quinn Hughes — Ethan Bear

Oliver Ekman-Larsson — Luke Schenn

Riley Stillman — Tyler Myers

Spencer Martin

Collin Delia

Scratched: Travis Dermott, Kyle Burroughs, Lane Pederson, Jack Studnicka

Injured: William Lockwood (upper body), Thatcher Demko (lower body), Tanner Pearson (hand), Tucker Poolman (undisclosed), Ilya Mikheyev (COVID-19)

Rangers projected lineup

Artemi Panarin — Mika Zibanejad — Jimmy Vesey

Chris Kreider — Vincent Trocheck — Barclay Goodrow

Alexis Lafreniere — Filip Chytil — Kaapo Kakko

Will Cuylle — Jake Leschyshyn — Sammy Blais

Ryan Lindgren — Adam Fox

K’Andre Miller — Jacob Trouba

Ben Harpur — Braden Schneider

Igor Shesterkin

Jaroslav Halak

Scratched: Libor Hajek, Vitali Kravtsov, Julien Gauthier

Injured: None

Correction time, yay! First, Jack Studnicka is definitely not a healthy scratch:

Also, someone should probably tell nhl dot com that Lane Pederson is also definitely not a healthy scratch for the Canucks, again.

Kind of weird to see Jimmy Vesey on the Rangers top line, and boo on them for not starting Jaroslav Halak, in case this holds true.

GAME DAY CHATTER

GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN

Going back to the ‘Tango & Thrash’ EP, here’s a track off MUNICIPAL WASTE’s love letter to the legendary Kurt Russell.

Enjoy the game, folks. Go Canucks Go!