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Canucks Game Day: DeBrusk sits, Lankinen starts against Kraken in Seattle
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Photo credit: Steven Bisig-USA TODAY Sports
Jeff Paterson
Dec 29, 2025, 15:46 ESTUpdated: Dec 29, 2025, 15:47 EST
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The Vancouver Canucks (15-19-3) are looking to snap a two-game losing streak when they visit the suddenly surging Seattle Kraken (16-14-6) at Climate Pledge Arena. Puck drop is scheduled for 7pm.
It’s the first of four meetings this season between the Pacific Northwest foes. 

What we know

As announced after Sunday’s practice, Jake DeBrusk will be a healthy scratch tonight. That will put an end to his 152 consecutive games played streak. The veteran winger has just one goal in his last 16 games and has only one 5-on-5 goal in 37 games this season.
DeBrusk and David Kämpf will both come out of the line-up tonight replaced by Nils Höglander and Aatu Räty.
The Canucks are expected to ice forward lines as follows:
Kane-Pettersson-Boeser
Öhgren-Rossi-Garland
O-Connor-Räty-Sherwood
Höglander-Sasson-Karlsson
The Canucks fell 6-3 to San Jose in their last game on Saturday night. Linus Karlsson, Marco Rossi and Drew O’Connor scored the Vancouver goals. For Rossi it was his first as a Canuck while O’Connor has scored in back to back games and now has a share of second on the team with nine goals on the season. Veteran centre Elias Pettersson returned to the line-up after missing eight games with an upper body injury. He played 20:47, had three shots on goal and won 11 of 20 face-offs.
Thatcher Demko allowed five goals on 36 shots. After starting six of the last seven games, Demko will cede the net to Kevin Lankinen tonight. Lankinen stopped 39 shots and all seven attempts in a 5-4 shootout win in Boston in his last start on December 20th.
Over their last three games, the Canucks have surrendered 119 shots or an average of 39.7 per game. They gave up 43 in Boston, 39 in Philadelphia and 37 against San Jose. 
In 25 games since the start of November, defenceman Filip Hronek leads the Canucks with 16 points. Also in that time, Drew O’Connor leads all Canucks skaters with nine goals while Linus Karlsson is second with eight.

The Opponent

The Kraken are on a roll having won four straight after a 4-1 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers last night. Eeli Tolvanaen scored twice and added an assist all in the third period while Jordan Eberle and Chandler Stephenson scored Seattle’s other goals. Philipp Grubauer made 31 saves and had his shutout bid broken with under two minutes to play.
With his three points last night, Tolvanen now leads the Kraken with 25 points. He has three goals and seven assists on a six-game point streak and today was named the NHL’s Second Star of the Week. Eberle has scored in three straight games and leads the club with 14 goals while Stephenson became just the second double-digit goal scorer on the roster with his 10th of the season last night. 
Prior to this hot streak, the Kraken had not won more than two consecutive games all season. They went into the holiday break after sweeping a three-game road trip beating each of the California-based teams. Seattle got off to a strong 5-2-2 start this season then went ice cold winning just seven of its next 23 games before rattling off four straight wins. The Kraken have surrendered just six goals on the win streak. 
Even with four goals last night, Seattle remains the lowest scoring team in the NHL with 93 goals overall and a league-low 56 at 5-on-5. Only St. Louis and the New York Rangers score fewer goals on a per game basis. The Kraken have scored a league-low 16 first period goals this season and have a -12 goal differential in the opening 20 minutes of games.
With Grubauer playing last night, Joey D’Accord is expected to get the start tonight. As a team, the Kraken boast the third best 5-on-5 save percentage in the league at 92.9%.

News and notes

These teams will meet again on Friday in Vancouver. They will also play two other times before the season is over: February 28th in Seattle and March 14th at Rogers Arena.
Tonight is the 16th all-time meeting between the teams with both claiming a winning record in the head to head battle. The Canucks are 8-6-1 while the Kraken are 7-6-2.
The referees for tonight’s game are Jon McIsaac and Gord Dwyer.
Don’t forget to join Rink Wide Vancouver for full postgame coverage after this game – and every game. The livestream starts moments after the final buzzer. Rink Wide is the place for full postgame analysis and discussion. Join the live YouTube chat with your thoughts on the hockey game.

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