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VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Canucks (32-33-10) are back in action for a second straight night as they conclude a busy weekend by hosting the Columbus Blue Jackets (40-30-4) at Rogers Arena. It’s the 11th and final set of back to back games on the schedule this season. The Canucks are 4-6 in the second games including a 3-2 overtime win in Chicago last Monday.

The Canucks fell 3-1 to the Calgary Flames last night. Brock Boeser scored a power play goal early in the third period to cut Calgary’s lead to 2-1. But that’s as close as the Canucks would get. Boeser has scored in back to back games and three of his past six. His goal last night extended his personal point streak to nine games (4+6=10) while Elias Pettersson picked up an assist and is now on a five-game run (1+5=6).

The Canucks have scored a power play goal in three straight games and are 4/6 (66.7%) over that span. They are now 6 for their last 18 (33.3%) over the past six games. They had six power play goals in the 26 games prior to that.

Last night’s loss snapped the team’s three game win streak leaving the Canucks 4-1-1 in their past six games. They now find themselves six points back of Colorado in the chase for the second and final Wild Card spot in the Western Conference with just seven games remaining on the schedule.

Jacob Markstrom stopped 28 of 31 Calgary shots last night, but it’s expected that Thatcher Demko will get the start tonight. Demko picked up his second win of the season in his last outing on Monday in Chicago. If he gets the call tonight, this will mark the fourth straight time Demko has been tapped to appear in the second game of team back to backs (at Arizona, at Edmonton and at Chicago). This will also be just his second home ice appearance and his first since January 18th against Buffalo. Demko made his NHL debut against the Blue Jackets nearly one year ago in a 5-4 overtime victory on March 31, 2018.

With no morning skate, the Canucks line-up is unclear. After using the same 18 skaters for the past four games, Travis Green could very well make changes – especially up front where he has three healthy extras: Nikolay Goldobin, Ryan Spooner and Sven Baertschi. If Baertschi draws in, it will mark his return to the line-up for the first time since February 2nd in Colorado. Due to a concussion (30 games) and post-concussion syndrome (currently 23 games), he has been limited to just 22 of the Canucks 75 games this season.

The Blue Jackets have been idle since a 4-1 loss in Edmonton on Thursday night. Defenseman David Savard opened the scoring midway through the second period before the Oilers rattled off four unanswered goals. Columbus is 0-2-1 in its past three games with the team’s last victory coming in a 3-0 win against Carolina on March 15th. The Jackets are 5-7-1 since being one of the busiest teams in the league at the NHL trade deadline.

Matt Duchene has 3+3=6 in 15 games with his new team while Ryan Dzingel has 1+6=7 in 13 games. Cam Atkinson leads CBJ with 38 goals while Artemi Panarin is the team’s leading scorer with 25+51=76. The team has scraped together just four goals over its past three games.

The Jackets boast the fourth best penalty kill in the NHL (84.2%), but no team has been short-handed less (190 times is tied with Toronto) and no one has given up fewer power play goals (30).

Columbus enters action tonight in ninth in the Eastern Conference just three points behind Montreal in the Wild Card chase. The Jackets hold a game in hand on the Habs and they will face-off against each on Thursday in Ohio.

The Blue Jackets have 40 wins on the season with 20 at home (20-16-2) and 20 on the road (20-14-2).

Sergei Bobrovsky did not dress on Thursday in Edmonton due to an upper body injury. However, he practiced with his teammates at UBC yesterday and hopes to be able to start tonight. The Jackets are carrying three goalies on the active roster with Joonas Korpisalo and Keith Kincaid.

The Canucks beat the Blue Jackets 3-2 in their only other meeting of the season on December 11th at Nationwide Arena. Jake Virtanen’s sharp angle shot with 1:46 remaining found its way past Korpisalo and was the game winner.

 

POSSIBLE CANUCKS LINE-UP

Pearson-Horvat-Goldobin

Leivo-Pettersson-Boeser

Baertschi-Gaudette-Virtanen

Spooner-Beagle-Motte

 

Edler-Biega

Brisebois-Stecher

Sautner-Schenn

 

Demko

 

POSSIBLE BLUE JACKETS LINE-UP

Panarin-Dubois-Atkinson

Dzingel-Duchene-Anderson

Robinson-Nash-Jenner

Dubinsky-Wennberg-Bjorkstrand

 

Werenski-Jones

Nutivaara-Savard

Harrington-McQuaid

 

Bobrovsky