The Vancouver Canucks (30-23-11) open a busy two-game weekend when they host the Chicago Blackhawks (20-37-9) at Rogers Arena. 
The team will move above the playoff bar in the Western Conference with at least a point.

What we saw

With a key game against Utah on tap tomorrow, the Canucks are splitting their goaltending duties this weekend. Arturs Silovs gets the start tonight. Silovs has struggled at the NHL level this season, posting just one victory in eight starts (1-6-1). That win, however, came against Chicago on November 16th. Silovs has not played an NHL game since a 5-2 loss in Anaheim on February 27th.
The Canucks are coming off a 4-3 shootout win in Calgary on Thursday. Tyler Myers missed that game with a lower-body injury, and defenceman Elias Pettersson left the game after taking a Connor Zary elbow to the back of the head. Both players are expected to play tonight. Otherwise, the team is expected to go with the same group of forwards used to beat the Flames. 
Forward Elias Pettersson scored the tying goal in the third period on Wednesday and then scored again in the shootout. He has scored in back-to-back games and three of his last four. His two-point effort on Thursday was his first multi-point performance since scoring twice against San Jose on December 23rd.
Captain Quinn Hughes will play his first home game since January 25th vs Washington when he scored a pair of goals. With injuries, his last seven games have all been on the road.

The opponent

The Blackhawks get back to work following a 4-2 loss in San Jose on Thursday night. The team is 1-3-1 in its last five games overall and 1-7-2 in its last 10 on the road. On the season, the Hawks have a league-low seven victories as the visitors (7-22-5).
North Vancouver’s Connor Bedard returns home for the second time in his NHL career. The 19-year-old leads Chicago with 52 points, while Ryan Donato is the team’s top goal scorer with 23 on the season.
Former Canuck Ilya Mikheyev is holding the hot hand these days with five goals in his last eight games. The Russian winger has 15 goals and 26 points in 64 games. 
The Blackhawks acquired goalie Spencer Knight from Florida as part of a deal that sent Seth Jones to the Panthers on March 1st. In four starts since the trade, Knight is 2-2, allowing nine goals in those games. He has a 2.24 goals against average and a .928 save percentage.
The Canucks are 2-0 against Chicago this season. They beat the Hawks 6-3 at United Center on October 22nd and posted a 4-1 victory at Rogers Arena on November 16th.
Tonight’s referees: Kendrick Nicholson &  Justin Kea
Tonight’s broadcasters: John Shorthouse & Dave Tomlinson

What we heard

Rick Tocchet on going with Arturs Silovs tonight against the Hawks: “To me, it didn’t matter who we played tonight. I don’t think it’s fair for Kevin (Lankinen) to play three in four nights after the workload he had. Listen, Arty played in the playoffs last year, he had a good start against Utah. He’s going to have to play. He has to go in there with confidence. We’ve talked to him. We want him to have his shoulder out, I want him to challenge. Don’t sink. Just be that guy that we all have confidence in and our team should rally around him and that should be the answer to it.”
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