Just two days after he shut out the Florida Panthers, Kevin Lankinen won't even be in the Vancouver Canucks' lineup.
But there's no need to panic. Lankinen isn't injured, just ill. Both Lankinen and Derek Forbort, who has had one heck of an unlucky start to the season, were not on the ice for the Canucks at Saturday's morning skate due to a flu bug going around the team.
In Lankinen's place, the Canucks called up Arturs Silovs from the Abbotsford Canucks in the AHL on an emergency basis to act as the backup behind Thatcher Demko against the Boston Bruins on Saturday night.
The media were informed on Thursday by Canucks staff that Vincent Desharnais missed the morning skate that day to illness. If Lankinen and Forbort have the same illness, they shouldn't miss much time because Desharnais was back on the ice Saturday morning.
The remaining Canucks will face a Bruins team that is reeling after a couple of big losses this week: an 8-1 loss to the Winnipeg Jets and a 5-1 loss to the Seattle Kraken.
To be fair, those two losses followed four straight wins, albeit against some of the worst teams in the NHL. The Bruins, to be blunt, have been underwhelming this season, with a 28th-ranked minus-23 goal differential, and a 15-13-3 record that currently has them outside of the playoff picture in the Eastern Conference by points percentage.
Part of the problem is the underwhelming performance of a pair of former Canucks, who make their return to Vancouver on Saturday night. Elias Lindholm has just 3 goals and 13 points in 31 games, while Nikita Zadorov had 2 goals and 8 points in 31 games.
The Bruins were hoping for more when they signed Lindholm and Zadorov to long-term, big-money contracts. Lindholm is the second-highest-paid forward on the Bruins with a $7.75 million cap hit for seven years, while Zadorov is getting $5 million per year for six years.
But Lindholm and Zadorov might be a little bit more motivated as they take on their former team, especially after the Canucks shut out the Bruins 2-0 in Boston three weeks ago. The two of them had a lot of success in this building in the playoffs and will be looking to have similar success on Saturday night.
Vancouver Canucks projected lines
Aside from Erik Brännström coming into the lineup for Derek Forbort, the Canucks' lineup won't change from Thursday's win.
Mark Friedman has looked good in a couple of games and it will be interesting to see how he meshes with Brännström on the third pairing. Brännström struggled in recent games before he was a healthy scratch but Friedman should be a better partner for his style of play than Vincent Desharnais.
The Canucks' starting goaltender will be Thatcher Demko, making his second start of the season after returning from an injury to his popliteus muscle.
Boston Bruins projected lines
Despite the two lopsided losses to start their road trip, the Bruins are keeping their top two forward lines together and only making minor adjustments to their bottom-six. They are, however, making a significant adjustment on defence.
Here are the Bruins' projected lines, courtesy of The Athletic's Fluto Shinzawa:
Morgan Geekie - Pavel Zacha - David Pastrnak
Brad Marchand - Elias Lindholm - Justin Brazeau
Trent Frederic - Charlie Coyle - Mark Kastelic
Cole Koepke - John Beecher - Marc McLaughlin
Nikita Zadorov - Charlie McAvoy
Jordan Oesterle - Brandon Carlo
Mason Lohrei - Andrew Peeke
Jeremy Swayman
Joonas Korpisalo
Zadorov will be on the Bruins' top pairing with Charlie McAvoy for his first game in Vancouver since signing with the Bruins. That bumps Jordan Oesterle to the second pairing, while Mason Lohrei will step into the lineup for Parker Wotherspoon.
The Bruins' starting goaltender will be Jeremy Swayman, who has an ugly .885 save percentage this season, made worse by the eight goals he surrendered to the Winnipeg Jets in his last start.
Heading into this season, Swayman had a career .919 save percentage, which earned him his eight-year, $8.25 million per year contract. He's struggling significantly in the first year of that deal.
