The Vancouver Canucks (14-17-3) will look for a season-high fourth straight win when they face the Boston Bruins (20-15) at TD Garden. The game begins at 4pm PT.

Led by Kiefer Sherwood’s second hat-trick of the season, the Canucks are coming off a 4-1 win over the New York Islanders last night.

What we know

With back-to-back games, the Canucks will not hold a morning skate, so it will be closer to game time before it’s known whether the team is making any changes to its forward lines or defensive pairings. Adam Foote stated on Thursday that Kevin Lankinen will get the nod in net for this game to spell off Thatcher Demko, who has started four straight. Lankinen has not played since a 4-0 loss to Detroit on December 8th. He is 0-5-1 in his last six starts, with his last victory coming on November 17th in Tampa Bay.

The Canucks have opened the scoring and held a 2-0 lead in all three of their games on their win streak. Last night, they led 3-0 after the first period on Long Island, and the game stayed that way through 40 minutes before the teams traded late goals.

Sherwood scored three times after David Kämpf gave the Canucks a 1-0 lead with his first goal of the season. Seven different scorers have found the back of the net through three games on this road trip. The Canucks have outscored opponents 9-2 on the team’s second three-game win streak of the season – and the first in which all victories have come in regulation time.

With 16 goals in just 34 games, Sherwood is already closing in on his season total of 19 from a year ago. He has twice scored three times in a game and also has a pair of two-goal games. For his career, Sherwood has a very balanced 59 goals and 59 assists.

Tonight is the seventh time the Canucks have played on consecutive nights this season. They are 3-1-2 in the second game of those sets. Their lone outright loss came in Florida on November 18th. They have defeated Chicago, Edmonton and Minnesota and dropped overtime results to Colorado and in Los Angeles.

In the team’s past 10 games, the Canucks are 4-5-1 and have scored just 20 goals, but have allowed only 23. Over that span, the team is averaging the fewest shots against in the league (23.4/game). In that 10-game run, neither the Canucks nor their opponents have scored more than four goals in a game.

Several Canucks are celebrating milestones or markers tonight: Filip Hronek is playing his 400th NHL game, while Kiefer Sherwood appears in his 300th. Nils Höglander is celebrating his 25th birthday today, and Max Sasson will fondly recall his first NHL goal scored against Boston last December.

The Opponent

Fluto Shinzawa

@FlutoShinzawa

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AM lines: Khusnutdinov-Lindholm-Pastrnak Mittelstadt-Zacha-Geekie Jeannot-Minten-Kastelic Viel-Kuraly-Eyssimont Zadorov-McAvoy Lindholm-Peeke Lohrei-Soderstrom

3:35 PM · Dec 20, 2025

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The Bruins return to action following a 3-1 home loss to Edmonton on Thursday. Pavel Zacha scored the lone Boston goal on a first period power play while Jeremy Swayman made 22 saves in goal. Despite the loss, the B’s have won five of their last seven games.

The Bruins enter the night with the fourth-best power play in the league at 25.7%. That’s one of the reasons they are the seventh-highest-scoring team in the league. Another is Morgan Geekie, who is second in the NHL with 24 goals, which is 11 more than his nearest teammate, David Pastrnak, who leads the club with 38 points, while Geekie has 37. Those two share the team lead with six power play goals apiece.

Geekie leads all NHLers with 15 goals on home ice this season. He has a remarkable 15 goals and three assists split at home so far this season.

Boston is the most penalized team in the league, leading in minors (147), total penalty minutes (434), and PIM per game (12.4). The Bruins have also been shorthanded more than any team in the league (129). Former Canuck Nikita Zadorov leads the league in minors taken (23) and is third in overall penalty minutes (66).

Jeremy Swayman has been busy in the Bruins’ net, starting 23 of the team’s 35 games. He gets the call again tonight. Swayman is 14-9 on the season with a 2.76 GAA and a .908 save percentage.

News and notes

The Bruins will be in Vancouver for the return match-up on Saturday, January 3rd. That will complete a back-to-back weekend to ring in the new year at Rogers Arena with Seattle in town on Friday, January 2nd.

The referees for tonight’s game are Jordan Samuels-Thomas and Brian Pochmara.

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