More bang-up scheduling from the geniuses at NHLHQ, as the Canucks start a Central Division that gets interrupted for a home against Boston for some reason.

VANCOUVER CANUCKS (22-30-4) vs NASHVILLE PREDATORS (26-22-6)

5:00 PM PST

BRIDGESTONE ARENA, NASHVILLE, TN

TV: SPORTSNET PACIFIC. RADIO: SN650

All in all, it wasn’t a bad week for the Canucks, but it surely wasn’t a good one. While the injuries continue to mount, they managed to sink further in the standings, and improved their chances of a potential draft lottery win that could change the course of this franchise, and still managed to stomp a hole in one of the NHL’s most unlikeable teams in the process.

They’ve got just five games left before the March 3rd trade deadline, and with teams calling about JT Miller (!!!) and Luke Schenn, they could look radically different in a couple weeks time. With only the St Louis Blues and tonight’s game against Nashville being ones versus non-playoff teams, they’re certainly set to continue to allow other teams to make up the gap and the best odds at drafting Connor Bedard, so bring on the chaos, baby!

And yeah, we know what’s at stake here, but given the nature of the opponent on Saturday, and the true colours they showed at the end of the game (Travis Konecny’s dirty AF late hit on Elias Pettersson), that win felt pretty damn good. For now, it’s back to entertaining losses that don’t involve potential trade pieces getting injured, I guess.

They go up against a Nashville team that’s running out of time to make a push for one of those final playoff spots in the West. They’re in a tough division, but have a creampuff soft schedule coming up, with two against the Canucks and Arizona, plus Chicago, Florida, San Jose and Anaheim over the next couple weeks. If they can put something together, they might just have a shot.

LINEUPS

The following lineup prediction was scribbled on a napkin found in the parking lot of a questionable blues joint in Nashville... or maybe it was nhl.com?

Canucks projected lineup

Andrei Kuzmenko — Elias Pettersson — Anthony Beauvillier

Phillip Di Giuseppe — J.T. Miller — Brock Boeser

Vasily Podkolzin — Jack Studnicka — Conor Garland

Dakota Joshua — Nils Aman — Sheldon Dries

Quinn Hughes — Ethan Bear

Riley Stillman — Tyler Myers

Christian Wolanin — Luke Schenn

Collin Delia

Arturs Silovs

Scratched: Kyle Burroughs

Injured: Oliver Ekman-Larsson (ankle sprain), Curtis Lazar (lower body), Thatcher Demko (groin), Travis Dermott (undisclosed), Ilya Mikheyev (torn ACL), Tanner Pearson (hand surgery), Tucker Poolman (undisclosed)

Predators projected lineup

Mikael Granlund — Ryan Johansen — Matt Duchene

Nino Niederreiter — Cody Glass — Philip Tomasino

Yakov Trenin — Colton Sissons — Tanner Jeannot

Cole Smith — Tommy Novak — Juuso Parssinen

Ryan McDonagh — Roman Josi

Mattias Ekholm — Jeremy Lauzon

Kevin Gravel — Dante Fabbro

Juuse Saros

Kevin Lankinen

Scratched: None

Injured: Mark Borowiecki (upper body), Alexandre Carrier (upper body), Filip Forsberg (upper body)

No personnel changes for the Canucks from Saturday apart from some minor tweaks. Di Giuseppe gets bumped to the 2nd line with Miller and Boeser, a nice reward for his solid, consistent play since being called up from Abbotsford. He damn near earned a spot in camp, and has been working his ass off to ensure he makes it difficult for them to send him back to the Fraser Valley.

After securing his 1st NHL win, Arturs Silovs gets the night off, and Collin Delia will start tonight. Also, Thatcher Demko’s injury scare appears to have been a near miss, and we should expect him back in the lineup soon. If I had to guess, it would be Saturday against Boston, which is a 4pm local start at home, showing the NHL panders to the Bruins as much as the Leafs, I guess.

GAME DAY CHATTER

GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN

Just gonna leave this here...

Enjoy the game. Go Canucks Go.