On today’s episode of Canucks Conversation, David Quadrelli and Harman Dayal discussed the Canucks’ new lines ahead of their matchup against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The guys started with the Canucks’ decision to start Arturs Silovs in goal, which surprised many after Kevin Lankinen’s stronger debut performance.
“I was a little surprised,” Harm said. “If you’re basing it off each goalie’s first start and who gives you the best chance to win, I thought they might lean toward Lankinen. But I can understand wanting to give Silovs a vote of confidence. Even if Lankinen goes on a hot stretch, Silovs will still be an important part of this goaltending tandem.”
Quads agreed, adding, “You don’t want to make your young goaltender doubt himself this early in the season. They’ll need Silovs for years. While Lankinen was much better, there’s little to gain by not going back to Silovs tonight. Until one goalie pulls ahead as the clear 1A, you keep splitting the starts. I agree with the decision to go with Silovs tonight.”
The conversation then shifted to the top-six forward group, with Arshdeep Bains moving up to play alongside J.T. Miller and Brock Boeser, while Danton Heinen shifts to a line with Elias Pettersson and Jake DeBrusk. Daniel Sprong is expected to be a healthy scratch.
“This is a statement from the organization that they believe Bains has significantly improved since his NHL audition last year,” said Harm. “Let’s be honest—he looked lost when he had that opportunity with Miller. But he’s young, and at every level he’s played at, it takes him a bit to get his feet under him. He struggled early in camp and preseason, but there’s been a marked improvement in his foot speed and offensive creativity. He’ll need to play quicker and more dynamically with Miller tonight.”
Quads added that Tampa Bay’s last change would make things difficult for Bains, as the Lightning will likely hard-match the line.
The third line of Nils Höglander, Aatu Räty, and Conor Garland remains unchanged, having found success in their bottom-six role. The fourth line will again feature Pius Suter, Teddy Blueger, and Kiefer Sherwood, as it did in the second game against Philadelphia after Nils Åman was taken out of the lineup.
“They’re changing up the top-six, and there doesn’t seem to be a lot of patience,” said Quads. “Through two games, it’s been the stars that have let them down. The third line is the only one that’s stayed together, but you shouldn’t need to take guys from the bottom-six and throw them into the top-six just to get your best players to perform. At some point, players like Pettersson, Boeser, and Miller need to step up. It’s only two games, and both went to OT—how different would the conversation be if they’d won one of those games? I don’t think we’re at the point yet where we should split the bottom-six, but if they have another bad night tonight, maybe you start considering it.”
The guys briefly discussed Daniel Sprong hitting the press box after an underwhelming start to his season.
“It’s the work away from the puck. There are moments where he’s coasting, which is part of the double-edged sword,” said Harm. “When you look at how Daniel Sprong scores most of his goals, they’re often off the rush. To do that, it sometimes involves him cheating up the ice. It’s a give-and-take situation, but he hasn’t made enough of an offensive impact at five-on-five to balance out the fact that he’s a below-average player when he doesn’t have the puck.”
“We know improvement is needed, but it’s not going to happen overnight. This isn’t a big shock, nor is it time to panic about Sprong,” Quads added. “We kind of expected this at some point. Sprong himself knows he has a lot to work on, and Tocchet has called him a work in progress. We knew this the moment he signed here. He’s getting his first healthy scratch tonight, and it’ll be interesting to see how he responds and where his game goes from here.”
You can watch the full replay of the show below:
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