The Vancouver Canucks are on the road to play the Florida Panthers on Thursday, October 17 at 7 p.m. ET. Vancouver is coming off a 4-1 road loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday.
Ahead of the Canucks game on Thursday, here's what their projected lines are expected to look like.
Predicted Canucks lineup
Forwards
- Arshdeep Bains - JT Miller - Brock Boeser
- Danton Heinen - Elias Pettersson - Jake DeBrusk
- Nils Hoglander - Pius Suter - Conor Garland
- Kiefer Sherwood - Teddy Blueger - Daniel Sprong
The Canucks offense has struggled to begin the year as star player Elias Pettersson is once again off to a slow start.
Defenseman
- Quinn Hughes - Filip Hronek
- Carson Soucy - Tyler Myers
- Derek Forbort - Noah Juulsen
Vancouver is led by its defense, and more so the first pairing. The Canucks defense has played well to begin the season.
Goalies
- Kevin Lankinen
- Arturs Silovs
The Canucks will be going to Lankinen on Thursday after Silovs struggled against Tampa Bay.
“Lankinen has impressed and we’re not scared to go to him, too,” Tocchet said in advance of the season opener, via The Province. “Who knows what happens.”
Vancouver is managing without starting goalie Thatcher Demko, who is currently out with an injury.
Canucks vs Panthers Preview
Vancouver is a slight -108 underdog while the Panthers are -112 favorites, with the over/under set at 5.5 goals and the over juiced to -115.
The Canucks are searching for its first win of the season as Vancouver has not played well to begin the year. It also is a tough test against the reigning Stanley Cup champions.
“You’ve got to dig in,” Tocchet said (per The Province). “We’re going to be playing another good team, they’re the Stanley Cup champs. You’ve got to come to the rink every day and try to get better and that’s what we’re going to do.”
This should be a great game as Vancouver looks to snap its losing streak while Florida is missing some key players. But, the Panthers' depth is still better than Vancouver while Sergei Bobrovsky should steal the game as Florida gets the home win.
Canucks October NHL schedule
Here is the remaining schedule for the Canucks for the month of October:
- @ Florida, Oct. 17
- @ Philadelphia, Oct. 19
- @ Chicago, Oct. 22
- vs Pittsburgh, Oct. 26
- vs Carolina, Oct. 28
- vs New Jersey, Oct. 30