Canucks Game Day: Boeser, Miller, Hronek and Cole won't play vs ...

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The Canucks are likely to dress a depleted lineup, but there will still be plenty of motivation to finish on a high note and grab a 51st win on the season

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Published Apr 18, 2024  •  Last updated 6 hours ago  •  4 minute read

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Vancouver Canucks (50-22-9) vs. Winnipeg Jets (51-24-6)

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When and where: Thursday, 5 p.m., Canada Life Centre

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TV: Sportsnet Radio: Sportsnet 650

The buzz: And so ends a remarkable season. The Canucks have 50 wins. They’re playing a strong team in Winnipeg … but will anyone care by game time? There’s nothing at stake now: the Dallas Stars sealed first place in the Western Conference on Wednesday night, locking the Canucks into a first-round playoff series against the Nashville Predators.

Thatcher Demko will make his second start in a row after returning from a knee injury. Other than that, head coach Rick Tocchet said Wednesday that he’s not sure about his lineup. He has a number of players who could probably use a rest, but he also wants to keep things sharp. He’s got players who as a point of pride will want to say they played every game this year.

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Tocchet had four healthy scratches for the Canucks’ penultimate game of the season on Tuesday against the Calgary Flames: defencemen Noah Juulsen and Mark Friedman, as well as forwards Nils Aman and Phil Di Giuseppe.

He also indicated that, of course, there are a handful of players who are working through bumps and bruises and could probably benefit from a rest ahead of the playoff opener, which is expected to be announced for Sunday at Rogers Arena.

• Thursday morning, Tocchet confirmed that he’ll be putting all four spares into the lineup, with J.T. Miller, Brock Boeser, Ian Cole and Filip Hronek making way.

Boeser, in fact, was left behind in Vancouver, Tocchet said.

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Boeser has missed a few practices lately, with Tocchet acknowledging he’s managing a minor, undisclosed, injury. Hronek too has been dealing with some sort of right elbow issue: the team’s medical staff has been wrapping heavy amounts tape around the joint in recent weeks and his inclination towards shooting seems to have declined.

Cole has been rested more than once recently. Miller is perhaps a surprise but he’s also the kind of guy who would probably still block shots in a game like this so why let him take the risk of breaking something.

“I wish I could sit 10 guys,” Tocchet admitted.

• The Jets are expected to rest a number of veterans. Cloverdale’s Laurent Brossoit will start in net. Brossoit has four wins in five career starts against his hometown team, but also hasn’t faced the Canucks since the end of the 2020-21 season.

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The history: This is the first visit to Winnipeg for Vancouver this season. The Jets beat the Canucks in Vancouver in February, scoring two goals on two bad defensive reads in the third period in what was an otherwise pretty evenly-played game. In March the Canucks hammered the flu-ridden Jets 5-0, again at Rogers Arena.

The hope: The Canucks are likely to dress a depleted lineup, but there will still be plenty of motivation to finish on a high note and grab a 51st win on the season. They could even have a chance at first place in the Western Conference if the Dallas Stars stumble and lose to the St. Louis Blues in regulation on Wednesday night.

The fear: Both teams have eyes trained on the playoffs, so this could very well be a dour affair.

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The top guns: The absent Miller has 103 points, the seventh-highest single-season total in Canucks history. Quinn Hughes has 91 points, the 12th-highest single-season total in team history. Both could move up the list: Miller is just one point back of Daniel Sedin’s 2010-11 season and Markus Naslund’s 2002-03 — they’re tied for fifth-highest — while Hughes is three points back of Henrik Sedin’s 2010-11 total.

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The quote: “Obviously it’s a lot easier when you win 50 games, it’s easier to be happy around the rink,” Conor Garland said. “There’s not a lot of uncertainty around our building and it was a focused group from game one. That’s probably why it’s been so much fun this year.”

The wounded: Canucks: Brock Boeser (undisclosed, day-to-day), Filip Hronek (right elbow, day-to-day). Jets: Morgan Barron (lower-body, day to day).

The lineup:

Forwards

Höglander-Pettersson-Mikheyev

Di Giuseppe-Suter-

Garland-Blueger-Joshua

Podkolzin-Aman-Lafferty

Defence

Hughes-Juulsen

Soucy-Myers

Zadorov-Friedman

Goalie

Thatcher Demko

The prediction: This game won’t have much zip. We’d predict a 1-1 tie but the NHL makes teams go to a shootout so let’s just say someone is winning 2-1 in the most boring way possible.

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(FAN FORUM: Do you have a specific question for a player? Pass it along to @provincesports and we’ll get it in a future edition.)

pjohnston@postmedia.com

twitter.com/risingaction

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