The Vancouver Canucks (10-14-3) welcome the Utah Mammoth (13-12-3) to Rogers Arena tonight at 6 PM PST to kick off a four-game homestand.

The Canucks will look to move out of 32nd in the NHL standings with a win tonight over the Mammoth.

It was a well-attended morning skate for the Canucks.

At Thursday’s practice at Rogers Arena, we saw Nils Höglander shed his non-contact jersey. While he did not have a designated line to skate with, he was heavily involved and stayed late after practice. The Swede did the same this morning, staying out late with assistant coach Brett McLean to ramp up his skating and shooting. While he’s not expected to return tonight, he shared that his target to return is sometime next week.

Conor Garland started yesterday’s practice in a non-contact jersey, but changed into a regular practice jersey halfway through. Head coach Adam Foote confirmed Garland will return to the Canucks lineup tonight. He missed the final two games of the road trip against the Los Angeles Kings and Colorado Avalanche.

Evander Kane and PO Joseph missed yesterday’s practice due to illness. Joseph was on the ice for morning skate; Kane was not. Foote mentioned that while Joseph returned to the ice this morning and is feeling better, he and Kane are not expected to play tonight.

With the optional morning skate, the Canucks did not participate in line rushes. So fans can expect similar lines from yesterday’s practice:

Höglander, Joseph and Lukas Reichel stayed late after the skate, indicating they would likely be tonight’s scratches.

Kevin Lankinen was the first goaltender off the ice, and Foote confirmed he will start tonight. This will be Lankinen’s 10th start over the Canucks’ last 13 games. In his previous outing, Lankinen stopped 28 of the 31 shots he faced in a 3-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche.

Linus Karlsson earned a promotion to the top line in yesterday’s practice after opening the scoring against the Avalanche and playing a career-high 16:49 minutes of ice time on Tuesday. He has four goals and five points over his last nine games.

Quinn Hughes has gone three straight games without a point. That is the only time this season, and the first time since a stretch from December 14-17 of 2023, that the Canuck captain has gone this many games without finding the scoresheet.

The Mammoth walk into town with all the confidence in the world after dominating the Anaheim Ducks 7-0 on Wednesday. JJ Peterka scored twice and added a pair of assists in what was his best performance as a member of the Mammoth. Captain Clayton Keller had one goal and three points on the night. While Dylan Guenther, Nick Schmaltz, Jack McBain and former Canuck Ian Cole also had multi-point games.

2018 first-round pick Barrett Hayton was made a healthy scratch against the Ducks on Wednesday. He is off to a slow start, having scored three goals and five points through 24 games. There is no confirmation of whether he will draw back tonight against the Canucks.

Daniil But, the 12th overall pick in 2023, made his NHL debut against the Ducks. While he did not find his way into the scoring, he logged 11:40 minutes of ice time, two shots on goal, two hits and a plus-one rating. He skated on the second line with Logan Cooley and Dylan Guenther.

Captain Keller leads the team with 25 points (nine goals and 16 assists). Logan Cooley leads the Mammoth with 14 goals.

While we can’t confirm who starts in net for the Mammoth, after earning the shutout on Wednesday, we would expect Karel Vejmelka in goal for Utah. Vejmelka has started 21 of the Mammoth’s 28 games this season, posting an 11-7-2 record, with a 2.73 goals against average and a .891 save percentage.

Utah currently sits sixth in the Central division and holds the final Wild Card spot in the Western Conference. The Mammoth are one of the top-scoring teams in the league, sitting ninth in total goals (87) this season. However, their power play has struggled. Their 14.1% power play conversion rate is the fifth-worst in the league this season.

In three games since the franchise arrived in Utah, the Mammoth are a perfect 3-0 against the Canucks: a 2-1 and 3-2 (OT) victories in Utah, and a 3-1 win in Vancouver.

The Canucks will wear their home blue jerseys tonight and tomorrow against the Minnesota Wild.

Foote on how he’s digesting being 32nd in league standings: “Yeah, I mean, there’s a lot. I can answer that 1,000 different ways, and I won’t. But I look at it more like we’re six points out of a playoff spot. This is a four-point night. These guys are holding [a playoff spot] with 29 points. We’re six behind them. So we can focus on this home stand before we go out east before Christmas. So this is like, no distractions, big game. Understand what we’re up against. And you know, we’ll look at it a different way, where swings happen quickly here. You know, if you focus, we got to look at positive. We’re getting some key players back as well off an injury-ridden start. So that’s the way to look at that.”

Höglander on how he’s feeling after returning to Canucks practice and what he has to do to return to game speed: “I’m feeling pretty good. Feels like I’ve been working hard. I’ve been skating for a couple weeks now. So I’m feeling pretty ready to go, go and play. So I mean, just bounce back where I left off in camp. So I think I could do pretty good.”