Canucks Daily: Line-ups, The Ovie Factor, Playoff Standings

The Vancouver Canucks line-up should stay the same Friday night against the Washington Capitals at Rogers Arena. Canucks Head Coach Bruce Boudreau is generally a believer in ‘if it ain’t broke’, don’t fix it’ and therefore will likely go with the same lines and pairings that won consecutively against the New York Islanders, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Montreal Canadiens.

Tanner Pearson, JT Miller, Brock Boeser

Nils Höglander, Elias Pettersson, Conor Garland

Vasily Podkolzin, Bo Horvat, Alex Chiasson

Matthew Highmore, Juho Lammikko, Tyler Motte

Quinn Hughes, Luke Schenn

Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Tyler Myers

Brad Hunt, Travis Hamonic

Thatcher Demko

We’ll have any updates from morning skate a little later in the day.

The Great Eight

Ovie might get booed tonight in Vancouver if the reception is anything like what he received in his two Alberta stops. Fans of the Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers appeared to boo Alexander Ovechkin every time he touched the puck based on his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

It’s a delicate balancing act and seems somewhat ridiculous considering none of us know the true extent of that relationship and at this point Ovie hasn’t come out in support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He’s taken a neutral position publicly and simply called for peace.

Who’s to say 20-year-old Vasily Podkolzin of the Canucks isn’t a huge supporter of Putin’s. How would we know? That would be a whopping assumption, just like assuming Ovechkin supports Putin’s diabolical nature is another.

This thing, the relationship between fans and particular Russian players, might get dicier as time goes by, but for now let’s enjoy the fact we get to see one of the sport’s all-time greats taking a shot at a milestone. Ovechkin is presently tied with Jaromir Jagr for 3rd all-time in career NHL goals with 766.

Playoff Chase

As you arise this morning you’ll find the Vancouver Canucks in 5th place in the NHL’s Pacific Division with 64 points, two points behind the 4th place Edmonton Oilers and four points behind the 3rd place Vegas Golden Knights with a game-in-hand on the the latter. That’s a playoff position, 3rd place, as are the two wild card spots presently occupied by the Nashville Predators and Dallas Stars of the Central Division, holding 70 and 67 points respectively.

The Predators have one game-in-hand on the Vancouver Canucks while the Stars hold two.

Enjoy the Hockey Action!!