This past week has been a rollercoaster for the Vancouver Canucks.
A week ago, Kevin Lankinen shut out the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers in one of the Canucks' most complete games of the season. The Canucks followed that up by falling flat on their faces against the Boston Bruins in one of their worst performances of the season.
But then the Canucks bounced back from that brutal beatdown by the Bruins and completely shut down one of the best players in the NHL in Nathan MacKinnon, with Thatcher Demko coming a minute away from a shutout of his own against the Colorado Avalanche, while Kiefer Sherwood tallied the first hat trick of his career.
It's been a week of towering highs and devastating lows, emblematic of the inconsistency the Canucks have shown all season. The Canucks deserve credit for bouncing back after a bad game but they also deserve some criticism for collapsing after a good game.
So, how can the Canucks keep consistent and string a series of good games together? Head coach Rick Tocchet thinks having the leadership group all back together with the return of Thatcher Demko and J.T. Miller will make a difference.
"I think getting guys like Demmer back, Millsy back, they'll strengthen the leadership group," said Tocchet after Monday's game. "It'll kind of settle everybody down. These guys are a resilient group. Very rarely have we put a bunch of stinkers together."
The Canucks will be looking to avoid a stinker in their first visit to Salt Lake City to face the generically-named Utah Hockey Club. Formerly the Arizona Coyotes, who were formerly the Phoenix Coyotes, who were formerly the Winnipeg Jets, the Utah Hockey Club has been decent this season, with a 14-11-5 record that actually has them ahead of the Avalanche by points percentage in the Central Division.
Conor Garland, who was never a...Club but was a Coyote, still knows plenty of players from that team.
"It's a beautiful city, it was cool flying in," said Garland. "I still have some friends on the team, so I hear about how nice it is...Kells [Clayton Keller] was my best man, so I watch every game of his and follow him closely. He's playing terrifically this year. First season as captain, so it's an adjustment, but he's doing great and playing well again."
Utah has won four of their last five games, with their one loss coming via the shootout. They're also well rested, with three days off since their last game.
Vancouver Canucks projected lineup
Don't expect any changes to the Canucks' lineup after their excellent performance against the Avalanche.
Here are the Canucks' projected lines:
Derek Forbort is still recovering from his bout with the flu, so Erik Brännström and Vincent Desharnais will remain the Canucks' third defence pairing.
While it was thought that Noah Juulsen might line up with Quinn Hughes last game based on how they practiced, Hughes spent most of his time with Tyler Myers, with Juulsen playing with Carson Soucy. Expect that to continue.
The Canucks' starting goaltender will be Thatcher Demko, with Kevin Lankinen returning to back him up after missing a couple of games with the flu.
Utah Hockey Club projected lineup
The Utahns have been pretty good lately, led by could-have-been-a-Canuck Dylan Guenther, who has 3 goals and 8 points in the team's last 5 games. Clayton Keller, Mikhail Sergachev, and Logan Cooley are right behind with 6 points in those games, while Kevin Stenlund has scored 4 goals.
Guenther also leads the team in scoring for the season with 13 goals and 29 points in 30 games, followed by Keller's 10 goals and 28 points.
Here are the Utahn's projected lines, courtesy of beat reporter Brogan Houston:
Clayton Keller - Barrett Hayton - Nick Schmaltz
Jack McBain - Logan Cooley - Dylan Guenther
Lawson Crouse - Nick Bjugstad - Matias Maccelli
Alexander Kerfoot - Kevin Stenlund - Michael Carcone
Mikhail Sergachev - Olli Määttä
Ian Cole - Michael Kesselring
Juuso Välimäki - Vladislav Kolyachonok
Karel Vejmelka
Jaxson Stauber
The Utah Hockey Club features one former Canuck in Ian Cole, who signed a one-year, $3.1 million contract after a solid regular season in Vancouver followed by a disastrous playoffs where the puck kept banking off him into the Canucks' net. You could argue that the Canucks' miss his veteran presence in the locker room, as he was the king of keeping an even keel.
The Utahn's starting goaltender is expected to be Karel Vejmelka, who has a very good .915 save percentage this season, even if he hasn't always gotten the goal support to turn that into a winning record, as he's 6-7-2 on the season. He's 3-0-1 in his last four starts, however.
