The Vancouver Canucks (0-0-2) play their first road game of the new National Hockey League season when they face off against the Tampa Bay Lightning (1-0) at Amalie Arena. With Hurricane Milton postponing the Bolts’ game on Saturday against Carolina, tonight’s game will serve as Tampa’s home opener.

What we know

Arturs Silovs gets the start in goal tonight. The 23-year-old Latvian struggled in Wednesday’s season opener allowing six goals on 26 shots in a 6-5 overtime loss to Calgary. Sportsnet’s Dan Murphy tweeted out these line rushes from yesterday’s practice:
Arshdeep Bains will make his season debut and there’s a strong possibility he’ll skate on left wing with JT Miller and Brock Boeser. Bains is still looking for his first NHL point. It’s expected Elias Pettersson will centre a line with Jake DeBrusk on left wing and Danton Heinen on the right side. It’s possible newcomer Daniel Sprong will be a healthy scratch for the first time after starting the season in the team’s top six forward group.
Head coach Rick Tocchet also said there is a strong chance Tyler Myers plays tonight after leaving Friday’s game against Philadelphia with what looked like a serious leg injury on his first shift of the game. However, the big blueliner was a full participant in practice Monday and is now considered a game time decision. If Myers is unable to go tonight, Vincent Desharnais will draw back into the lineup after sitting out the team’s last game.
The Canucks have been idle since a 3-2 shootout loss to the Flyers on Friday night. Nils Höglander and Teddy Blueger scored the Vancouver goals while Kevin Lankinen was sharp stopping 29 shots in his Canucks debut. Höglander and Conor Garland are the only Canucks to record points in each of the team’s first two games.
The Canucks have opened the scoring in both of their games and have carried a lead to the third period in both games. In fact, five of the seven goals the Canucks have scored so far this season have come in the first period. They have one second period goal and one third period marker.
Brock Boeser leads the team with a pair of goals – both coming on opening night against Calgary. Jake DeBrusk is still looking for his first goal as a Canuck, but leads the team with six shots on goal.
Quinn Hughes, who celebrated his 25th birthday yesterday, logged a career-high 31:29 of ice time on Friday against Philadelphia. He is the only NHL skater to crest the 30-minute mark in a game so far this season.

The opponent

Nikita Kucherov had a natural hattrick and was in on all four Tampa goals in the Lightning’s 4-1 win at Carolina last Thursday. Newly-named captain Victor Hedman had three assists and Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 20 of 21 Hurricane shots for his first win of the season.
Jake Guentzel, who was linked to the Canucks ahead of free agency, has had terrific success throughout his career against Vancouver. He has 12 goals and 20 points in 12 career meetings. Guentzel had a pair of assists in his Tampa debut last Friday.
These teams will meet again on December 8th in Vancouver. Last season they split their two game season series with each team winning on home ice. Tonight’s match-up features two coaches that will be behind the bench for Team Canada at February’s 4 Nations Face-Off. Tampa’s Jon Cooper will be the head coach of that team while the Canucks Rick Tocchet will be one of the assistants along with Bruce Cassidy of Vegas and Peter DeBoer of Dallas.
Tonight’s referees: Chris Rooney & Brian Pochmara
Tonight’s broadcasters: John Shorthouse & Dave Tomlinson

What we heard

Rick Tocchet thinks Canucks players are excited for first road trip of season: “I think a lot of guys like going on the road especially when you’re at home with camp at stuff, I think it’s a good time for guys to bond. Plus, we were a good road team last year so we’ve got that identity. So it’s good to come on the road and I want to see us play to that identity.”
Tocchet on getting Arshdeep Bains into the lineup: “It’s early in the season, you want to try different things. I want to get Bains in the lineup. I don’t want to see him sit. Young guys shouldn’t sit that long and he deserves to play tonight. He’s a good forechecker. I think Millsy loves guys that get in on the forecheck and help him out. He’s a guy that we have our eye on. He’s going to push for jobs and hopefully he can be consistent.”
Tocchet updates Tyler Myers’ status for tonight: “He’s a good possiblity. I think we dodged a bullet so I think it’s a good possiblity that he’ll be in. It’s more of a pain tolerance and I think he’s starting to feel better. There were no structure problems.”
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