Sunday April 3 - Vegas Golden Knights at Vancouver Canucks - 4 p.m. PT
It's down to the wire now for the Vancouver Canucks, who are getting set to play three games in the next nine days against the Vegas Golden Knights.
Note the early start time: puck drop for Game 1 on Sunday is at 4 p.m. PT, on Sportsnet Pacific.
After three days off and without picking up any points since last Saturday in Dallas, the Canucks have now fallen eight points back of the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference. Vegas can increase that gap even more with any type of win on Sunday.
Here's the quick rundown of the relevant standings as of Sunday morning.
3rd in Pacific: Edmonton - 69 GP, 83 pts
1st Wild Card: Nashville - 68 GP, 82 pts
2nd Wild Card: Dallas - 67 GP, 81 pts
9th place: Vegas - 70 GP, 80 pts
10th place: Winnipeg - 70 GP, 76 pts
11th place: Vancouver - 69 GP, 73 pts
The Canucks have been losing ground, and not just because of their days off. Vancouver is 3-5-2 for eight points in its last 10 games. None of the other teams mentioned above is worse than 6-4-0, for 12 points.
The Golden Knights, of course, are riding a four-game winning streak, having turned their season around after the Evgenii Dadonov trade was cancelled. While the trade was in limbo, they were shut out by Minnesota and Winnipeg and looked like they were cooked. But since then, they've beaten Nashville, Chicago and Seattle (twice), and rookie goaltender Logan Thompson has gone from someone who's keeping the crease warm until Robin Lehner gets healthy to a viable option in net.
Thompson's an undrafted 25-year-old who played his junior hockey for Brandon in the WHL. After getting into one game with Vegas last year, he has now appeared in the Golden Knights' last 10 games and is up to 7-4-0 for the season, with a .921 save percentage and 2.55 goals-against average to go along with 2.6 goals saved above expected.
NHL fantasy info sites like
Left Wing Lock list Thompson as 'projected' to start for Vegas on Sunday. But Robin Lehner has been inching closer to a return to action after missing 10 games with a lower-body injury. He was activated last week and backed up Thompson for both games in Seattle. But with the early start time on Sunday, Vegas didn't take a morning skate. So lineup details will remain uncertain until closer to game time.
As for Dadonov, he has seven points in four games since getting back into the Vegas lineup after wielding his no-trade clause to prevent his move to Anaheim.
The Canucks and the Golden Knights have played just once so far this season — a 7-4 loss in Vegas on Nov. 13, on that disastrous road trip that also saw the team take big losses in Colorado and Anaheim and may have put the wheels in motion for Travis Green's dismissal.
That game also marked the debut of ex-Canuck defenseman Ben Hutton with Vegas, after he signed as a free-agent with the team in late October.
He has since morphed into Alex Pietrangelo's partner on the Golden Knights' top defense pairing, a plus-six with 11 points in 46 games. But he has seen his 20-plus minute deployment ease off over the last three games, now that Alex Martinez is finally back in the lineup.
Still, Vegas has been happy enough with what they've gotten from Hutton that they've already extended him, signing him to a new two-year deal with a cap hit of $850,000 per season on March 5.
And while Vegas was happy to get Martinez back after he missed 53 games following a skate cut to his face, their injured list remains long and unruly.
Up front, Mark Stone, Max Pacioretty, Reilly Smith and Brett Howden are out, while Nolan Patrick, William Carrier and Keegan Kolesar are questionalbe.
On the blue line, Nicolas Hague is sidelined, and in goal, Laurent Brossoit remains questionable.
The Canucks also won't be doing a media update until about 1:30 p.m. on Sunday. So we can only try to glean roster info from Saturday's practice at Scotia Barn (8 Rinks).
Bo Horvat was back, after leaving Wednesday's game against St. Louis due to illness. And there's a chance we could see Tucker Poolman and/or Jason Dickinson against Vegas.
Poolman hasn't played since Jan. 27. Dickinson has been out since Feb. 24.
And as I'm sure you've heard by now, the other big conversation this week has been about whether or not the Canucks will bring back Bruce Boudreau after this season.
On last Friday's '32 Thoughts' podcast, Elliotte Friedman sounded incredulous that this was even a possibility. I don't feel as surprised.
Boudreau's specialty is turning teams around. He's good in the short term, but hasn't had staying power in his previous stops in Washington, Anaheim and Minnesota. And while it's easy to latch onto the fact that he has brought back some fun and energy around the Canucks again this year, the club has faltered over the last few weeks and will probably miss the playoffs.
Boudreau was hired even before Jim Rutherford was in place, let alone current GM Patrik Allvin. Typically, GMs get to pick their own coaches, which is why I wasn't surprised to hear Allvin say the club was looking to do a full assessment before making a decision on the coaching situation for next season.
Also — this brand new management group is barely through the trade deadline. I doubt they've had much opportunity to spend much time thinking about what they want in a coach for the long term.
Finally — Allvin seems like a cautious sort, who isn't going to make bold declarations in the media without having thoroughly thought everything through. I feel like jumping from him saying "We're going to look at things" to "They don't want Boudreau" is a pretty big leap at this stage. It's a story that still has plenty of time to play out — and could still be influenced by these final 13 games.
If the Canucks make a big push down the stretch, that could tip the scales again.
For now — enjoy the game!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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