The Vancouver Canucks finish their National Hockey League preseason schedule with a pair of games against the Edmonton Oilers starting tonight at Rogers Place. The teams will meet again on Friday night at Rogers Arena. It’s a lot of buildings with Rogers attached to them. Tonight’s game is in Edmonton. Friday’s game is in Vancouver.
This will be the fifth game in seven nights for the Canucks, who dropped games in Seattle on Friday and in Calgary on Saturday. The team is now 2-2 in the preseason.
The Canucks, once again, opted out of having any kind of morning skate before travelling to the Alberta capital, so details about tonight’s line-up remain murky. Kevin Lankinen is expected to get the start in goal. He stopped 20 of 23 Kraken shots in his Canucks debut on Friday. There is no word on who will serve as the back-up or whether Lankinen is slated to go the distance in goal tonight.
Oilers Nation’s Jason Gregor tweeted this update out from Edmonton:
The Canucks have not dressed anything close to their opening night line-up yet and may not until Friday’s preseason finale. JT Miller has yet to appear in preseason action and captain Quinn Hughes has played just once so far – last Wednesday in Abbotsford. Rookie Jonathan Lekkerimaki leads the Canucks in preseason scoring with a goal and two assists. He scored his first goal in a Vancouver uniform on Saturday night in Calgary.
Rick Tocchet mentioned late last week that Teddy Blueger could be a possibility for tonight’s game. Blueger skated in a non-contact jersey through training camp in Penticton, but has now been medically cleared and was practicing with the non-game group last week at UBC.
After releasing Sammy Blais from his PTO this morning, the Canucks now have 39 players on their preseason roster (40 including Tucker Poolman who will not play this season). For a number of players, tonight will likely be their last chance to impress the coaching staff in a bid to make the hockey club.

The opponent

Full details of the Oilers line-up for tonight are not known, but two key pieces of information have been made public. Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl will both be in uniform tonight. The Oilers captain has a goal and two assists in the three preseason games he’s played so far while Draisaitl has one assist in his one exhibition outing to this point.
And look at this, former Canucks first rounder Vasily Podkolzin is getting the opportunity of a lifetime tonight.
Podkolzin netted his first goal in an Oilers uniform scoring short-handed in Saturday’s 5-4 win over Seattle.
Earlier today, Edmonton released veteran forward Mike Hoffman from his professional tryout. Hoffman had a goal and three assists and a team-leading four points in his four exhibition outings.
Tonight’s game will be televised on Sportsnet Pacific. Following the game, be sure to check out the live stream of Rink Wide Vancouver which returns for a new season starting tonight.
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