Both before and after the NHL Olympic break, Kevin Lankinen and Nikita Tolopilo were pretty much splitting starting duties for the Vancouver Canucks.

However, that seemed to be less about how great Tolopilo was, and more about Lankinen struggling to keep the puck out of the Canucks’ net at the standard he’s used to. But in March, something changed for Lankinen. For the first time all season, he strung together three starts with a save percentage above .900. On the month as a whole, he’s put together an .889 save percentage, which makes it the second-best month of his season by that metric.

Perhaps most importantly for him individually, Lankinen earned back the starting duties. Thursday night’s game against the Los Angeles Kings marked Lankinen’s fifth straight start for the Canucks. That string of games seems to have shifted the conversation around the Vancouver goal crease into one less about “oh wow, good for Lankinen!” to one about when Nikita Tolopilo will get back into the Canucks’ net.

With 11 games left in the season and with 32nd-place all but locked up, you might not be thinking too much about wins or losses at this point in the season. But don’t tell that to head coach Adam Foote, who is obviously still going to do what he feels gives his team the best chance to win on any given night.

After the Canucks’ loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday night — which marked Lankinen’s fourth straight start — Foote was asked about the decision to go with Lankinen again. Here’s his answer:

“I think we just wanted, you know, we, we had a really good start against Seattle, and I thought Tolo played good the game before, and fought hard, but we’re trying to get some momentum with our young guys as well. And Tolo, you know, he’s what is he, 5-6-2? But I just felt like we wanted to get some momentum with our group, and we want to have more results at [this] homestand, for sure, but we’ve seem like we’re playing with more confidence, and that was probably mainly what that was, though, we put a lot on Lanks, but we’ll manage it. We have discussions every day about it. We’ll manage it moving forward, and we’ll see how the rest goes.”

That answer seems like a roundabout way of saying what’s becoming clear: Tolopilo has lost his coach’s trust, and in the eyes of Foote, the Canucks play with more confidence when Lankinen is backstopping them.

Tolopilo’s last start came back on March 14th when the Canucks lost 5-2 to the Seattle Kraken. In that game, Tolopilo was a bit leaky, and there were at least a couple of goals that he probably should have had. But to lose the crease to the extent that he has? It seems a bit excessive, to be honest.

The easiest way to answer when a backup goalie will play next is to scan the schedule for the next set of back-to-back games. With 11 games left this season, the Canucks have two such instances remaining. First, they’ll play two juggernauts in Colorado and Minnesota on April 1st and 2nd, respectively. Then they’ll take on the San Jose Sharks and Anaheim Ducks on the 11th and 12th.

The Canucks have just two games before that first set of back-to-backs against the two powerhouses from the Central Division. First, they’ll play the Calgary Flames on Saturday. Then they’ll head to Vegas to take on the Golden Knights on Monday, March 30th. Then it’s off to Colorado.

Is it really fair to Tolopilo to throw him in against Colorado or Minnesota after having not played for over two weeks? We’d suggest the answer is no.

We’d also suggest — focusing on the part of Foote’s answer where he talked about trying to win on home ice — that the Canucks’ coaching staff might agree with that statement, and that they’ll try to get Tolopilo a start Saturday night in Calgary. The Flames are obviously a weaker opponent and Lankinen is more than due for a night off. This would be a good opportunity for the Canucks to let Tolopilo feel some rubber before throwing him to the wolves against the Avalanche or Wild next week.

After that, it’s anyone’s guess how the Canucks will deploy their goaltenders.