The Vancouver Canucks will wrap up their five-game road trip when they visit Climate Pledge Arena Saturday evening to play the Seattle Kraken.

The Canucks have started the road trip 1-3-0, and offered an embarrassing performance Thursday in a 5-2 loss versus the Anaheim Ducks. They do still own a one-point lead over the Calgary Flames for the final playoff spot entering Saturday’s NHL slate, but the Utah Hockey Club and St. Louis Blues are also in striking distance thanks to respective three-game win streaks.

While the Kraken are essentially eliminated from playoff contention, they are betting favourites in this matchup, as they will play on home ice with a significant rest advantage.

I’ll detail the relevant game notes, as well as outline my favourite betting angle below.

After garnering a 2-0 lead in the first period versus the Ducks, the Canucks seemed to run of gas in the second and third periods playing night two of a back-to-back. The Ducks looked to be the faster side in the matchup and received more dynamic play from their top two offensive units.

The Ducks held a 10-6 edge in high danger scoring chances, and as expected, Lukas Dostal offered superior play in goal compared to Arturs Silovs.

It’s tough to win a road back-to-back without your top forwards creating some offence, and it was yet another highly disappointing performance from Elias Pettersson, while Filip Chytil also had what was likely his worst game as a Canuck.

The Canucks once again went with 11 forwards and seven defencemen versus Anaheim, but it would be surprising to see that alignment again in tonight’s matchup. Head coach Rick Tocchet likely was hoping to offer any wingers who had some jump early some extra minutes and help to manage Quinn Hughes’ workload. Seventh defender Derek Forbort didn’t seem to serve much purpose, however, and due to the 11/7 arrangement, there was little consistency in the line compilations.

Over the last 10 games the Canucks are 5-4-1, and hold an expected goal share of 48.8%. They continue to play a very low event brand of hockey, as they have 24.78 shots for per 60 in that span, but have limited opponents to just 25.79 shots against per 60.

Having Hughes back in the mix should help to alleviate the offensive concerns to some extent, but it takes more than one elite offensive defender to drive an offence to decent results. They simply need better play from Pettersson and other top forwards to remain in the playoff race, even if their recent acquisitions have raised the team’s floor to some extent.

Boeser also hasn’t looked overly threatening by any means, and if management could get a fair trade offer for the pending free agent, it would certainly make sense to take it, especially if the reports that he turned down a five-year offer worth north of eight million per season are accurate.

Kevin Lankinen will likely get the start in goal after serving as the backup on Thursday. He holds a +5.3 GSAx rating and a .907 save percentage in 36 appearances this season.

The Kraken are better than their overall record suggests with Daccord in goal, but this matchup still offers two points the Canucks absolute need to garner. It’s possible that the result of this game could even have some say in management’s approach to the trade deadline, as with a loss, it would be pretty hard to feel this season is going anywhere.

It wouldn’t surprise me to see the Canucks earn a critical win with a desperate performance in this spot, but the betting prices do seem relatively fair given Vancouver’s play on this road trip.

There does look to be value backing McCann to record over 2.5 shots on goal at +154. McCann is the best shooter on the team by a margin and has started to pour pucks on goal at the rate we are more accustomed to seeing of late. The Canucks do play a low event brand of hockey, but +154 still seems to be an excellent number for a prop which has hit in five of the last six games.