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The flu is a problem for the Vancouver Canucks right now: report

Rob Williams
Rob Williams
|
Mar 28 2025, 6:47 pm
The flu is a problem for the Vancouver Canucks right now: report
Dennis Schneidler/Imagn Images

As if the Vancouver Canucks needed more adversity.

The Canucks have played with heart and desperation the past two weeks, despite missing Elias Pettersson, Filip Chytil, and Nils Höglander up front. Captain Quinn Hughes has stepped up heroically, despite being banged up. And Thatcher Demko just returned to the lineup this week, despite admittedly not being 100 per cent healthy.

And now, more adversity.

It may be spring, but the flu bug is reportedly going around the Canucks dressing room.

The team called up Max Sasson from Abbotsford this morning, and, according to Sportsnet’s Dan Murphy, it’s because of the flu.

It remains to be seen who will come out of the lineup for Sasson, if anyone, in tonight’s huge game in Columbus.

Kevin Lankinen will start, per Murphy’s reporting, following two straight Demko starts.

We don’t know exactly what Lankinen had been dealing with the past week, but he didn’t even dress as a backup for the Canucks’ past two games against the New York Islanders and New Jersey Devils.

“We almost pulled him, he wasn’t feeling great,” Rick Tocchet said of the Finnish netminder after Saturday’s loss against the New York Rangers.

Needless to say, it’s desperation time for the Canucks.

Vancouver was tied with St. Louis in points (69) on March 11. Since then, the Canucks have fallen five points behind the Blues, despite Vancouver going 5-2-1 in the last eight games.

That’s because the Blues are on a heater, going 8-1-0 during the same timespan.

The Canucks have two games in hand on the Blues, but it’s going to take a strong last 10 games for Vancouver to make the playoffs.

 

“I hate using the word desperation; we’re playing teams that are desperate too, like really desperate,” Tocchet said after today’s morning skate, referring to the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Eastern Conference playoff chase.

“You gotta worry about using that word all the time because desperation is a good thing but sometimes a bad thing, where you get out of control…  So when you say desperation, it’s like good changes, a blocked shot. Every inch matters more than ever because the other team’s thinking the same way.”

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