Arturs Silovs makes NHL debut against New York Rangers, and keep an eye on Vasily Podkolzin

This is not a drill. 21-year-old goaltender Arturs Silovs will make his NHL debut tonight as the Vancouver Canucks get set to host the New York Rangers tonight at Rogers Arena. The Latvian netminder, who the Canucks selected in the 7th round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft, has a .906 save percentage in the AHL this season, and has been red-hot of late, with a .956 over his last five games. Silovs has posted three shutouts with the Abbotsford Canucks this season.

Here are some things to watch for during tonight’s game.

The Rangers are playing some great hockey of late. The blue shirts have won five games in a row and outscored their opponents 25-13 through the winning streak.

It’s going to be a tough night for the Canucks’ defencemen as the Rangers boast one of the most dangerous top-six forward groups in the league.

Artemi Panarin has scored four goals and added five assists over the Rangers’ five-game winning streak and has been doing a lot of his damage at five-on-five. On the power play, it’s been Mika Zibanejad doing most of the recent damage — he has three power play goals over his last five games and is taking a lot of shots when the Rangers are on the man-advantage.

The Rangers have had three days off and we’ve heard rumours that the Rangers held their rookie party on one of those days off. It’s a strong top-six that is backed up with some good depth in the lineup as well as a defence corps that features K’Andre Miller, Adam Fox, Jacob Trouba, and more.

But speaking of line combinations, the Canucks will have a noticeable change to their top-six as well.

Vasily Podkolzin skated on a line with Elias Pettersson and Anthony Beauvillier on Tuesday and the expectation is that Podkolzin will begin the game on that line as well.

When it comes to the control of expected goals, Podkolzin has gotten a strong bump in his numbers when he is on a line with Pettersson. During his 100-game NHL career, Podkolzin has a 45.8% xGF% when away from Pettersson and a 52.7% xGF% when he is on a line with Pettersson.

Podkolzin is pretty fresh from an AHL stint where he looked to continue to build up his confidence and found himself shooting the puck a lot more at the end of his time with the Abbotsoford Canucks. Our hope is that a promotion to the Pettersson line is another good bump in confidence for the 21-year-old winger. Podkolzin has been the best Canucks in terms of possession numbers since he returned from the AHL.

Beauvillier has good puck skills, and we all know what Pettersson has been up to this season.

It’s a night for Podkolzin to let his built-up confidence explode.

It’s another 7:00 pm start at The Rog tonight. The Canucks come into the game with a 1-3-1 record since the All-Star break and have allowed an average of five goals a night since the break. This lines up perfectly with how many goals the Rangers have averaged scoring over their last five games. It should be a high-scoring affair tonight and the Canucks have a stiff, uphill battle to take down the playoff-bound Rangers.

Or maybe tonight is just a wicked recipe for those on team tank.

No matter the case, we will have you covered with an instant analysis article just minutes after the game, The Stanchies later in the night and the Statsies tomorrow morning.