In the Hockey is For Everyone afternoon gameday slot, the Vancouver Canucks and Columbus Blue Jackets clash on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2024.

The Canucks are this season’s western conference powerhouse, having six NHL All Star representatives — head coach Rick Tochett, forwards Elias Petterson, Brock Boeser, and JT Miller; defenseman Quinn Hughes; and starting goaltender Thatcher Demko.

At the time of this writing, the Canucks are first in the league and on a five game winning streak, dominating the Eastern Conference.

Vancouver had a busy summer retooling the roster under the former Penguins brass into their new vision.

Out

Vitaly Kratsov headed to the KHL.

Ethan Bear signed with Washington.

Brady Keeper signed with Montreal. Tanner Pearson was traded to Montreal.

Colin Delia signed with Winnipeg.

Kyle Burroughs joined San Jose.

Oliver Ekman-Larsson was bought out of his contract and signed with Florida.

Justin Dowling signed with New Jersey.

Travis Dermottt joined Arizona after being left unqualified.

Spencer Martin was claimed off waivers by Columbus just before the season began.


In

Sam Lafferty was acquired via trade from Toronto.

Casey DeSmith was acquired via trade from Montreal.

Pius Suter and Teddy Bleuger signed as free agents.

Ian Cole, Carson Soucy, and Matt Irwin signed as defenders.

This is their first meeting of two, playing each other twice in the next 12 days.

Elvis is in against Demko.

Projected Lineups


Vancouver Canucks

Elias Pettersson—JT Miller—Brock Boeser
Dakota Joshua—Teddy Bleuger—Connor Garland
Ilya Mikheyev—Pius Suter—Andrei Kuzmenko
Nils Hoglander—Nils Aman—Sam Lafferty

Quinn Hughes—Fillip Hronek
Carson Soucy—Tyler Myers
Nikita Zadarov—Ian Cole

Thatcher Demko
Casey DeSmith

Injured — Phil Di Giuseppe, Tucker Poolman

Columbus Blue Jackets

Johnny Gaudreau—Cole Sillinger—Yegor Chinakov
Kent Johnson—Adam Fantilli—Emil Bemstrom
Dmitry Voronkov—Jack Roslovic—Kirill Marchenko
Alexandre Texier—Sean Kuraly—Justin Danforth

Damon Severson—Adam Boqvist
Ivan Provorov—Andrew Peeke
Jake Bean—Erik Gudbranson

Elvis Merzlikins
Spencer Martin

Scratched — Mathieu Olivier, David Jiricek, Daniil Tarasov

Injured — Nick Blankenburg, Boone Jenner, Patrik Laine, Zach Werenski

Players to Watch

Vancouver — Quinn Hughes — potential Norris winner.

Columbus — Sean Kuraly — back from injury, it is great to see him after what occurred in Toronto.

Predicted Final Score

VAN - 4

CBJ - 1

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