Canucks Game Day: Connor Bedard arrives with Vancouver in a frenzy (2024)

Chicago Blackhawks vs. Vancouver Canucks

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When: Saturday, 7 p.m., Rogers Arena

TV: SN Pacific. Radio:Sportsnet 650

The buzz:How quickly things can turn in a week. Last weekend, the Canucks were coming off an impressive win over the Los Angeles Kings. “We’re getting to our game,” Rick Tocchet said with some confidence. But after losses last Saturday to the Edmonton Oilers and Thursday to the New York Islanders, it’s all feeling a little bit crisis-stations. The Blackhawks aren’t great, but in hometown hero Connor Bedard they do have a weapon. Will the Canucks suddenly turn fragile on themselves? The Canucks are 6-3-1 in their last 10 games, but goals for and against are 50/50 in this stretch.

The history:The Canucks won pretty decisively 6-3 last month. There’s little reason to think Saturday’s game won’t go similarly.

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The hope:The Canucks have put together some very strong performances this season against weaker opposition such as the Blackhawks. There’s little reason to think it won’t go as it has against the likes of San Jose, Anaheim and Calgary.

The fear: Self-doubt appears in the Canucks’ game. They have struggled to break out of their own end — better teams have punished them, so what happens if bad teams start to figure out how to counterstrike?

The top guns:Quinn Hughes (three goals, 13 assists) keeps putting up points and so too does J.T. Miller (five goals, nine assists). Rookie Jonathan Lekkerimaki has played two solid games since his call-up earlier this week, and has a goal. Elias Pettersson may be playing better, but he still has only nine points through 15 games.

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The wounded: Canucks: Thatcher Demko (knee, week to week), Derek Forbort (leg, week-to-week), Brock Boeser (concussion, indefinite). Blackhawks: Laurent Brossoit (knee, indefinite).

The quote: “The fans are paying, what is it? Two, three, four hundred bucks? And we’re throwing some duds at them. So I apologize to the fans again. We’ve got to correct this,” Rick Tocchet after Thursday’s embarrassing 5-2 loss to the Islanders.

The lineup:

Suter-Miller-Lekkerimaki

DeBrusk-Pettersson-Sherwood

Joshua-Blueger-Sherwood

Heinen-Raty-Hoglander

Hughes-Hronek

Soucy-Myers

Brannstrom-Juulsen

Lankinen

The prediction:These Canucks have been too good and too together to not be able to bounce back, with vigour, from Thursday’s debacle. They’ll smash the Hawks 5-2.

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The latest: Kevin Lankinen missed Friday’s practice for maintenance while Vincent Desharnais tweaked something and was held off the ice.

(FAN FORUM: Do you have a specific question for a player? Pass it along to @provincesports and we’ll address it in a future edition.)

pjohnston@postmedia.com

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