Canucks Name Starting Starting Goalie & Revamp Lines Ahead of Dakota Joshua's Much Anticipated Season Debut

After their big 3-1 win against the Calgary Flames on Tuesday, the Vancouver Canucks are back in the saddle tonight to faceoff against former captain Bo Horvat and the New York Islanders.

It is no surprise, but it seems the Vancouver Canucks and Rick Tocchet only trust one man between the pipes as they name Kevin Lankinen as the starter for tonight's contest against the Islanders.

Arturs Silovs has proven that he just is not ready right now to take on a workload that is not coming off a back to back.

Lankinen has truly been an elite goalie this season, already in the early running for the Vezina Trophy. In 11 games played, he holds an incredible record on 8-1-2, with a 2.46 goals against average and a .911 save percentage (S%). It only makes sense that the organization keeps giving the nod to him.

The biggest story line heading into this game is the long anticipated return of power forward Dakota Joshua. The 27-year-old has been sidelined since the offseason when he was diagnosed with testicular cancer, needing surgery to remove the cancerous lump.

Rick Tocchet disclosed that he will be monitoring Joshua's ice time carefully, which is the primary purpose of slotting him on the 4th line with Nils Hoglander and Aatu Raty.

20-year-old rookie Jonathan Lekkerimaki will once again be slotted on the top line with J.T. Miller and Pius Suter, the latter in which is playing amazing since getting top-6 minutes.

Pius Suter - J.T. Miller - Jonathan Lekkerimaki
Jake DeBrusk - Elias Pettersson - Conor Garland
Danton Heinen - Teddy Blueger - Kiefer Sherwood
Nils Hoglander - Aatu Raty - Dakota Joshua

Quinn Hughes - Filip Hronek
Carson Soucy - Tyler Myers
Erik Brannstrom - Vincent Desharnais

Kevin Lankinen
Arturs Silovs