Canucks Game Day: Getting a boost with Lekkerimäki and Lankinen expected to start vs. Kings

After a Black Friday matinee in the Bay Area, the Vancouver Canucks (10-13-2) return to Southern California when they take on the Los Angeles Kings (11-6-7) at Crypto.com Arena. It’s the late game on Hockey Night in Canada and starts at 7 pm PT. 

It’s the team’s fifth set of back-to-back games this season. The Canucks are 2-1-1 in the second leg of games on consecutive days. They won their first two against the Chicago Blackhawks and against the Edmonton Oilers, but have dropped the last two against the Colorado Avalanche (in overtime) and the Florida Panthers. 

What we knowThe Canucks elected to stay away from the rink this morning, so it will be closer to game time before their lineup is confirmed for tonight. With Kevin Lankinen rejoining the club this morning after missing the first two games of the road trip to tend to a personal matter, he very well may get the call in goal tonight. Lankinen has not played since a 5-2 loss against the Calgary Flames last Sunday. Nikita Tolopilo stopped 21 shots in a 3-2 loss in San Jose on Friday afternoon and has started the last two games. The loss to the Sharks was Tolopilo’s first NHL setback.

With Jonathan Lekkerimäki recalled from Abbotsford earlier today, look for him to get plugged into the lineup tonight, quite possibly in a top-six role. He last played an NHL game against the Washington Capitals on October 19th when he left with an upper-body injury. Aatu Räty, who was a healthy scratch yesterday, is also likely to return to action. Lukas Reichel and Arshdeep Bains are the probable candidates to come out of the lineup. It’s conceivable that Lekkerimäki and Jake DeBrusk could lineup with Elias Pettersson knocking Evander Kane from the top line.

Brock Boeser and Elias Pettersson scored the Vancouver goals at the Shark Tank on Friday. Pettersson has five goals in his last seven games and has at least a point in seven of his last eight outings. The story of the game on Friday was special teams as San Jose scored a pair of power play goals while the Canucks went 0 for 8 in 11:37 with the man advantage. The eight opportunities were a season high. The Canucks generated 11 shots on the power play, led by Jake DeBrusk, who had three. According to Hockey-Reference.com, yesterday was the first time in a decade the Canucks had eight power play opportunities and did not score.

yesterday in San Jose was the first time in past decade #Canucks have had 8 PP opportunities in a game and did not score. Most PP opportunities in a game since 9 vs ANA in 2013

Conor Garland logged a career-high 24:28, including 10:02 of the third period. It’s the second time this month he has played more than 24 minutes in a game and the eighth time he’s crested 23 minutes. While always buzzing, Garland’s assist on Boeser’s game-opening goal was his first helper in 11 outings.

With his goal on Friday, Boeser moved into sole possession of 10th spot in all-time Canucks scoring with 450 career points. He had five shots on 10 attempts against the Sharks. 

The Canucks surrendered a pair of power play goals for the ninth time in 25 games. They’ve now allowed a league-high 26 goals while shorthanded, and their PK has dropped to 32nd in the league at 70.5%.

Tonight wraps up the month of November for the Canucks. They have gone 4-7-2 this month, scoring 45 goals but allowing 57. Quinn Hughes leads the team in scoring for the month with 1+14=15, while Drew O’Connor’s seven goals for the month are tops on the team.

The Opponent

The Kings let a late lead get away and fell 5-4 in a shootout to the Anaheim Ducks on Friday. They were up 4-2 with 10 minutes to play in the third period. Kevin Fiala, Alex Laferierre, Alex Turcotte and Joel Edmundson scored the LA goals. Darcy Kuemper made 27 saves, but was beaten on two of three shootout attempts. Kuemper dropped to 0-4 in shootouts this season. With Kuemper playing yesterday, Anton Forsberg may get the call tonight.

The Kings have been to a league-high six shootouts and are 1-5 in games decided in the skills competition. Overall, they have been to overtime in 11 of their 24 games. Incredibly, 17 of those 24 games have been decided by just one goal (8-2-7). Their last seven games have all been decided by a single goal.

Fiala leads the club with 10 goals, followed by Adrian Kempe and Corey Perry with seven apiece. Kempe leads the team with 20 points while Quinton Byfield has 18. Captain Anze Kopitar, in his final NHL season, leads the Kings with three power play goals. 

Los Angeles is 2-4-3 on home ice this season, having been outscored 27-18. Despite that, the Kings hold down second spot in the Pacific Division.

Former Canuck Andrei Kuzmenko has gone eight games without a goal and has just one in his past 15 outings. He has 3+4=7 on the season.

News and notes

The Canucks and Kings will meet three more times this season. Those games will make up three of the final 12 contests on the Canucks schedule (March 26th in Vancouver, April 9th in Los Angeles and the Kings will be the visitors for the Canucks regular season home finale on April 14th). 

Officiating was in the spotlight yesterday. The referees for tonight’s game are Kyle Rehman and Corey Syvret.

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PRESENTED BY VIVID SEATS