The Vancouver Canucks will look to make it three wins in a row on Tuesday night.
After dropping their first three games of the 2024-25 season, the Canucks turned things around with back-to-back wins over the Florida Panthers and Philadelphia Flyers. Next in their crosshairs are the Chicago Blackhawks.
The Canucks might be without the services of J.T. Miller, who will be a game-time decision, though he did take the ice for an optional morning skate.
"He looks like he's probable," said head coach Rick Tocchet. "We'll do it game-time, we'll see how he is. I'll talk to him later today."
Miller briefly left Saturday's game against the Flyers after the opening faceoff, seeming to suffer some sort of injury to his left arm, wrist, or hand. He returned to the game but only took one more faceoff the rest of the way, with his wingers Brock Boeser and Jake DeBrusk stepping in to take draws.
It's possible that Miller tweaked something that was already an issue — the same theoretical injury that may or may not have occurred during the Canucks' training camp scrimmage that possibly resulted in him playing in just one preseason game. There's a lot of hedging here because, at the time, Miller refused to even call it an injury.
"Just kind of been taking care of something and not forcing it," said Miller before his first preseason game. "We've had the luxury of having some time over the last two weeks, so just trying to be smart. Should be good to go Friday...I was worried that if I got in earlier, something could have been made something worse that we didn't need to."
Likewise, after the game against the Flyers, Miller circumvented a question about the faceoff injury and instead quipped, "I forgot my mouth guard for one shift."
If Miller plays, he might not take faceoffs, as that's what caused the issue in Philadelphia.
"Whatever we decide, I'm going to err on the side of caution," said Tocchet.
Vancouver Canucks projected lines
Knowing Miller, he'll do whatever it takes to get into the lineup, whether he takes faceoffs or not. With that in mind, the Canucks are likely to return with the same lines that earned them the win in Philadelphia.
In Miller's absence, the Canucks practiced with a slightly modified version of this lineup on Monday, with Pius Suter taking Miller's spot at centre between DeBrusk and Boeser, while Arshdeep Bains stepped into Suter's spot on the fourth line.
Here are the projected lines, which will be updated if they change by game time:
Danton Heinen, Teddy Blueger, and Kiefer Sherwood looked very good as a checking line on Saturday, though they may not last long with Dakota Joshua returning to practice this week, though he's reportedly still 1-2 weeks away from getting back in the lineup.
The one change is Arshdeep Bains coming into the lineup for Daniel Sprong, who will sit for his third healthy scratch of the young season.
The Canucks' starting goaltender will be Kevin Lankinen, starting his third straight game after a shutout against the Flyers. Lankinen has out-performed Arturs Silovs early in the season and the Canucks are understandably riding the hot hand.
Chicago Blackhawks projected lines
The Blackhawks have been hit-or-miss to start the season, with a 2-3-1 record through six games. They lost 4-2 to the Buffalo Sabres in their last game.
Teuvo Teravainen and Connor Bedard lead the Blackhawks in scoring with 7 points each, while former Canuck Ilya Mikheyev has yet to record a single point despite averaging 15 minutes per game.
Here are the Blackhawks projected lines, courtesy of WGN Radio's Charlie Roumeliotis:
Nick Foligno - Connor Bedard - Teuvo Teravainen
Taylor Hall - Andreas Athanasiou - Tyler Bertuzzi
Ilya Mikheyev - Jason Dickinson - Ryan Donato
Pat Maroon - Lukas Reichel - Craig Smith
Alex Vlasic - Seth Jones
Wyatt Kaiser - Connor Murphy
Nolan Allan - TJ Brodie
Petr Mrazek
Arvid Soderblom
The Blackhawks' starting goaltender will be Petr Mrazek, who has a .911 save percentage through four starts this season.
Goaltending hasn't really been the issue for the Blackhawks so far; the issue has been more to do with their defence, particularly TJ Brodie, who has been out-scored 5-1 when he's been on the ice at 5-on-5.
The Blackhawks' special teams have been quite good this season, with a 29.4% power play and an 87.5% penalty kill, both of which far out-rank the Canucks.
