There are a few significant storylines heading into Wednesday night's game between the Vancouver Canucks and Anaheim Ducks. One of them even involves the game itself.
The Canucks will be looking to redeem themselves after they coughed up a two-goal first-period lead to the Ducks just last week. As much as the Canucks have preached moving on from losses and just getting ready for the next game, that loss will surely be in the back of their minds as they take the ice and aim to have a better showing in front of their home crowd.
Their captain, however, won't be taking the ice at all.
Quinn Hughes' health is a major storyline, as he returned from injury a week ago and then further injured himself on Saturday against the Seattle Kraken. According to head coach Rick Tocchet, it's a different injury from the reported oblique injury that kept him out for a month, describing it as a lower-body injury.
Hughes won't play Wednesday night against the Ducks, but it's unclear just how long he'll be out. On Tuesday, Tocchet said that they were considering their options, which could include shutting him down for seven days to let him rest.
"He's not going to play tonight. He'll get a bunch of treatment today and then we'll go from there," said Tocchet after Wednesday's morning skate. "We're going to shut him down tonight and then see how he is tomorrow. That's really what the injury is right now, we'll see how it works out. See the severity. Every day it kind of changes: he feels a bit better and then, can he get through a practice?"
In some ways, the Canucks have to be careful to protect Hughes from himself.
"A long-term injury could really affect him," said Tocchet. "At this point of the season, a lot of people play hurt. This guy's a gamer, so sometimes you've got to make decisions for Quinn. We don't ever want to jeopardize this guy's career — it's not a career type of thing but it's something you've got to keep your eye on."
The other big storyline is that the trade deadline is Friday. It's entirely possible that this could be the last game in a Canucks jersey for one or more of the players in the lineup tonight, with rumours swirling around Carson Soucy, Pius Suter, and Brock Boeser.
It's something that particularly resonates for Boeser, who is a pending unrestricted free agent and is the longest tenured Canuck on the roster in terms of when he played his first NHL game.
"Any time you have uncertainty, it's scary," said Boeser. "The unknown is scary. There's a little bit of stress involved in that. It's not a great situation but I'm really just trying to focus on tonight. I'm still here, I'm still on the Canucks, and that's my main worry right now."
He took a moment to be appreciative of the support he's received from the fans in Vancouver, though he was quick to add that he's still a Canuck and didn't want to sound like he was saying goodbye.
"I can't say enough about the fanbase and the city," said Boeser. "Everyone's so kind to me when I'm just out and about. Everyone's always had my back and supported me and it's something I really appreciate about this place."
Vancouver Canucks projected lines
The Canucks will have a different look with their lines on Wednesday, including the addition of Jonathan Lekkerimäki after a call-up from the AHL. Lekkerimäki has 7 goals and 12 points in his last 12 games in Abbotsford, so the Canucks are hoping he can bring some of that goalscoring with him to Vancouver.
Here are the Canucks' projected lines:
With Hughes out, Elias "Junior" Pettersson will draw back into the lineup, likely on the third pairing. Tocchet suggested that Pettersson will get some ice time with Filip Hronek on the top pairing but don't be surprised if Derek Forbort plays with Hronek in key situations.
At practice on Tuesday, Dakota Joshua and Conor Garland were back together, this time with Elias "OG" Pettersson between them.
Lekkerimäki was matched with a pair of excellent puck-transporters in Filiip Chytil and Drew O'Connor, which should, in theory, lead to lots of opportunities for Lekkerimäki to get open to use his fantastic shot.
That bumps the Canucks' two leading goalscorers, Jake DeBrusk and Brock Boeser, down to the third line with Pius Suter, while Nils Höglander is back on the fourth line with Teddy Blueger and Kiefer Sherwood.
The Canucks' starting goaltender will be Kevin Lankinen.
Anaheim Ducks projected lines
The Ducks are coming off a big 6-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night but that also means they're playing on the second half of back-to-backs. In theory, that should give the Canucks the advantage, especially since the Canucks had three days of rest.
But that's just in theory. The Ducks are a young, fast team that gave the Canucks fits with how they attacked off the rush last week. The Canucks will need to lock down their rush defence on Wednesday night to prevent that from happening again.
Here are the Ducks' projected lines:
Trevor Zegras - Leo Carlsson - Alex Killorn
Frank Vatrano - Ryan Strome - Troy Terry
Cutter Gauthier - Mason McTavish - Sam Colangelo
Jansen Harkins - Isac Lundestrom - Brett Leason
Jackson LaCombe - Radko Gudas
Pavel Mintyukov - Jacob Trouba
Brian Dumoulin - Drew Helleson
John Gibson
Lukas Dostál
The Ducks' starting goaltender is expected to be John Givson after Lukas Dostal started on Tuesday. Gibson and Dostal have identical .911 save percentages, so there's not much of a gap between the two goaltenders this season. That said, Gibson did give up 6 goals on 24 shots in his last start against the Chicago Blackhawks.
