For the eighth time this season, the Vancouver Canucks will look for their first win of the 2022-23 NHL season.

The Canucks are in Seattle to take on the Kraken before making the flight up the I-5 to take on the Pittsburgh Penguins Friday night at home.

Instead of holding a full morning skate, the Canucks elected for an optional game day skate.

Based on the lines at yesterday’s practice, however, we expect the Canucks to go with these lines tonight:

Bruce Boudreau confirmed that Thatcher Demko will be his starting netminder this evening, adding that the team hasn’t yet decided if Spencer Martin will get the start tomorrow, or if they’ll go to Demko on back-to-back nights.

Martin Jones is expected to go for Seattle tonight.

The Canucks are playing just to get their first win, and with two days off since their last game and three days off coming up after this back-to-back, it’s understandable why the Canucks aren’t closing the door on using their starting netminder on back-to-back nights.

On the other hand, Demko was overworked last season, and the gaps between starts for the Canucks’ backup netminder Jaroslav Halak couldn’t have been great for keeping a rhythm and staying fresh.

The Canucks have two points on the season, one of which came in a Spencer Martin start. Demko hasn’t had his A-game to start the new season, so there’s certainly a debate to be had about who the Canucks should be going with tonight and tomorrow night.

A bit of a shorter what was said section today, as Kyle Burroughs was the only player whose media availability was posted on the Canucks’ Twitter account.

“We just need to put it in action. We’ve talked a lot and we’ve discussed it a lot as a team, and I think we just need to piece together the right things and put in that effort, leave it all out there and we’re going to trend in the right direction,” said Burroughs. “We want to win. We know this team has more inside this locker room and it’s on us to bring that and take it to the next level.”

Boudreau added that he expects Boeser and Hughes back soon, and the Canucks’ three day break starting Saturday will certainly help.

Puck drop is at 7 PM from Seattle tonight.