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Scenes from morning skate: Canucks sticking with the same lineup for tough test against Tampa Bay
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Photo credit: © Bob Frid-Imagn Images
Jeff Paterson
Mar 19, 2026, 15:19 EDT
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The Vancouver Canucks (21-38-8) face the Tampa Bay Lightning (41-21-4) at Rogers Arena tonight. The game begins at 7 pm PT.
The Canucks will take another shot at posting their first back-to-back home ice victories of the season.

What we saw

Following a team day off on Wednesday, the Canucks held a full morning skate. While they did not show line rushes during the 30-minute on-ice session, the Canucks will make no lineup changes from the group that defeated the Florida Panthers 5-2 on Tuesday night. Kevin Lankinen starts back-to-back contests after a 21-save effort against the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions. P-O Joseph has shed the non-contact jersey that he was wearing two days ago, but he will not return to the lineup tonight; however, he is a possibility for the weekend.
As he nears his 1,000th NHL game (tonight will be career game 995), Evander Kane had his small son on the Canucks bench throughout morning skate.
Elias Pettersson snapped a 20-game goal drought with a pair against the Panthers. His second goal was the 200th of his NHL career. Pettersson is now three points shy of 500. His goals on Tuesday both came on the power play. It was the first time Pettersson had scored with the man-advantage since a November 20th game against Dallas. With those two goals on Tuesday, Pettersson became the first Canucks player to 40 points this season.
Marco Rossi has scored in three straight games. He has 3+4=7 in those three outings, while Brock Boeser had three assists on Tuesday and has 3+5=8 in his last six games.
Vancouver is 3-2-1 in their last six outings. The three wins over those six games match the three victories the team had in the previous 26 games it had played.
The Canucks will once again be wearing their black skate alternate jersey tonight.
Canucks forward lines tonight:
DeBrusk-Pettersson-O’Connor
Öhgren-Rossi-Boeser
Sasson-Blueger-Karlsson
Höglander-Räty-Kane

The Opponent

The Lightning arrive in town on the heels of a 6-2 win in Seattle on Tuesday night. Nikita Kucherov had a hattrick and two assists to lead the charge. He scored his three goals on seven shots and 13 shot attempts. Brandon Hagel scored once and added three helpers. The Bolts practiced on Wednesday but took Thursday morning off entirely, so their lineup will not be confirmed until closer to game time.
Kucherov is on an absolute tear. He has a league-leading 66 points in 30 games since Christmas and, with 111 points on the season, is four behind Connor McDavid for top spot in the NHL scoring race. He leads the Bolts with 37 goals and 74 assists. Jake Guentzel is second in team scoring with 70 points.
Defenceman Darren Raddysh has 17 goals on the season and leads all NHL blueliners with nine power play markers.
As a team, Tampa is second in the league in overall offence (3.53 goals/game) and fourth in defence (2.76 goals against/game). The Lightning shares the league lead in road wins with 21 and is the highest scoring road team in the league with 130 goals away from home.
Andrei Vasilevskiy leads the NHL with 31 victories and is having another stellar season, posting a 2.30 GAA, a .914 save percentage and a pair of shutouts. Vasilievskiy is expected to get the start tonight. He did not play the last time these teams met.
From December 20th through February 25th, the Lightning recorded a 20-1-1 record. Since then, however, the team is 3-7 in its last 10 games.
Perhaps surprisingly, Tampa is the most penalized team in the NHL, with 10 more major penalties than any other team in the league.

News and notes

The Canucks scored five third period goals in a 6-2 win in Tampa in the first meeting of the season between these teams. That is one of only two losses for the Bolts in a dozen games against Pacific Division opponents (10-2).
Tonight is the annual Canucks For Kids Fund telethon. Hockey Night in Canada’s Elliotte Friedman will be one of the television hosts for the event.
The referees for tonight’s game are Graham Skilliter and Jordan Samuels-Thomas.

What we heard

Adam Foote on what sets Nikita Kucherov apart and what makes him such a challenge to defend: “Well, he’s got great deception. He studies the game. When you play a long time, him and (Brayden) Point together, you create some rhythm. He’s a very talented guy with a lot of deception. You have to expected the unexpected. He’s usually passing where he’s not looking. He’s a gifted player.”
Marcus Pettersson ready for the challenge of facing Kucherov tonight: “Just his ability to slow the game down. He controls the pace when he has the puck and without the puck, too. You have to make sure you’re in his pocket all night and don’t give him that space. I think great players what they’re able to do is find that space and teams kind of give them space because they’re afraid to get burned, he can kill you that way too. His ability to control the tempo of the game is impressive to me.”
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