This has MAJOR Implications for the Canucks...

This has massive implications on the Vancouver Canucks season as heading into the final stretch of this Eastern Conference trip, the Vancouver Canucks need key players to step up to keep their playoff dreams alive. We have a lot to break down in this episode, so we're just going to hop straight into that today, where we do know the Vancouver Canucks are desperately looking to hold on to their final wildcard spot, or to hold the final wildcard spot. Right now, we do see the Calgary Flames jump ahead of the Canucks with an extra point, 79 points on the Canucks, 78. St. Louis Blues have been the hottest team in the NHL with seven wins, do have the second wildcard spot, and the Vancouver Canucks are desperately looking to get into the win column or continue to stay in the win column to take a wildcard spot from either Minnesota or the St. Louis Blues. Now listen, the Canucks are dealing with a lot right now, but going into the game versus the New York Islanders, this is a do or die win. Looking at the Canucks versus the Islanders right at the very top, if they beat the Islanders in regulation, they do jump 6.4% to 21.5% chance to make the playoffs. If they lose in regulation, this drops six points down to 9%, which is below 10%. And this is not what the Canucks need to do going into this final stretch. If it drops down below 10%, I lose a lot of optimism for this Canucks team but staying above 20% I mean it's a lot better than 10 this gives the Vancouver Canucks a lot better of a shot to make the postseason now listen they're dealing with a lot Thatcher Demko looked great versus the New Jersey Devils and we do see he is starting versus the New York Islanders once again tonight make a heroic save in overtime which led to the Canucks winning in a shootout to get the much needed two points versus a struggling Devils team the New York Islanders are once again another team looking to make the postseason obviously their standings don't matter as it is the east but with the Canucks they do have a lot of implications within this lineup as well listen we know PD is not in this lineup we know Hejda is out with concussion protocols Hoglander is out for an unspecified amount of time as long with PD so this is a Canucks team that is relying on a new core center group of Pius Suter, Teddy Blueger, Nils Aman, and Ratu. These guys look good versus the New Jersey Devils, but they're going to be tested once again when they do face the New York Islanders tonight or yesterday, depending when you're watching this. With Thatcher Demko starting, this does mean Shelobkov is going to back up once again as it seems like Lankinen is out right now with some sort of bug where we did see him really struggle versus the New York Islanders. So hopefully Demko can go back into his prime form once again. Listen, this is the Canucks team, as I said, Höglander, Pedersen, Heidle, Mancini is scratched, Lankeninen is in the press box, and Juleson is out for the year with the surgery. They have dealt with injuries throughout this entire season, and I know a lot of people say, hey, the Canucks haven't had a lot of injuries. I've seen a couple comments, which is just outstanding to me. I mean, looking at it, the Canucks have not had a healthy group all year. Starting the year with Demko out, we've seen Hughes go down, Hronko was down at one point, Besser was out to start the year as well. JT Miller took an absence, he's out, Heidle's out. I can continue going with this list. The Canucks have been snaked in when it comes to injuries, and they've never had a full core of their group healthy at the exact same time. Looking at this current team going into the game, you can see players with X's next to their names. These are the players that are either on the Canucks that are traded or out with an injury. When you look at the scoring leaders, Elias Pettersson leading all forwards with 45 points is out in tonight's game and we know he's out for the remainder of this Eastern Conference trip JT Miller of course was traded to New York Rangers actually demoted to the second power play recently so that's kind of kind of funny to look at but continuing down the list, Neal, Höglander, Danton Heinen and Carson Soucy when looking at the Canucks scoring they have a lot of their top end talent out looking at players with more than 40 points, Besser, Garland and Dubrovsky and that would be the forwards with over 40 points these guys are going to have to step up quite a bit we know a lot of these guys are having disappointing years I mean Dakota Joshua was out to start the year which is another name to add to the list of injuries we know what he was going through but currently nine points in 40 odd games is not looking great we're going to see a lot of Canucks players have to step up and the first one and this wouldn't be a Canucks digest video with mark by talking without going on Jonathan Lekramaki, we've seen his heroic game scoring a goal for the Vancouver Canucks against the New Jersey Devils scoring the shootout winner to send Jacob Markstrom into a rage of breaking his stick and listen I love Markstrom, former Canucks player but I'm happy that he was not happy with the Canucks winning, we need to see key players stepping up and I think a big part of this is going to be Jonathan Lekramaki, with Jonathan Lekramaki we know he has a shot, we know he can play in the NHL, he's proven it winning the game for the Canucks, I mean Rick Tocchet just a day ago, spoke on this after the Canucks played the New Jersey Devils. I've got to try to get some more chemistry from some guys. Got to try and find some more minutes for him. Two beautiful shots for us. The shootout was great, but that other one was a goal scorer's goal. That was an impressive one to me, and this was following the New Jersey Devils game. So fully expect Rick Tocchet to come out and look for Jonathan Lekramaki to get a bigger jump within this lineup. looking at the standings we already know he's stationed on the second line left wing as per PuckPedia heading into this game we know Rick Tocchet loves to change the lines so this could change quite a bit as you're watching the game but Jonathan Lekramaki stationed on the second line we're going to see power play time out of him as well Jonathan Lekramaki is a big name to watch within this group to really step up only having three goals two assists and five points this season he dominated in the AHL in his rookie season so far 19 points in 32 games unless the Vancouver Canucks are kicked out of the playoffs and they have a zero percent chance of making it we will not see Lekramaki in the AHL for the remainder of this season he has been too good and too crucial on a desperate Canucks team to continue looking at Rick Tocchet going into this game as well we got some quotes from him going into after the post or pre-game skate or post-game skate I should say we don't want to sit back we want to be aggressive head coach Rick Tocchet speaks on facing the Islanders tonight Pius Suter's play and following the morning skate now there's a big name to follow here and that is Pius Suter as well Pius Suter has been a stud for this Canucks team I know he's a UFA I know we've seen the quote from Rick Tocchet weeks ago where he said cha-ching when he scored 20 but he continues on with this 21 goals in 70 games this year for 36 points Pius Suter has been a bright spot scoring 20 goals for the first time in his career the last time he did it was in the Swiss A league during 1920 season with Zurich but with Pius Suter coming in taking over this top line role this is a huge just stretch of games If he can continue to dominate on this top line, we could see the Vancouver Canucks have to pay him even more. And listen, no one wants to see that. But Pius Suter has been showing that he is deserving. But listen, Canucks fans, there's a lot to look at in this game. There's implications. As I said, looking at this game, if they lose, they drop down to below 10% on with Money Puck putting these stats out. What's your thoughts on this game? What do you think the final score is going to be? Listen, I think they're going to come out rolling. we already know Rick Tocchet has said they want to be aggressive we're going to see a desperate and hungry Canucks team pushing to make the postseason where anything can happen we've seen teams go on Cinderella runs but Canucks fans what's your thoughts on this i think the final score is going to be 4-1 for the Vancouver Canucks in a statement game where this is a do or die go down and leave a comment on your prediction of the score leave a comment on who scores the first goal i love reading through it so just leave me a comment on anything you want to talk about even if you want to troll me a bit i love that too but i've been your host Mark, bye, if you enjoy this go and leave a like, subscribe, share this with your friends we are so close to 7,000 i wanted to leave this to them so if you guys enjoy this go subscribe if you didn't well hopefully we catch you on the next one and convince you in that one but i've been your host Mark, bye and take care