Coyotes at Canucks preview

COYOTES (27-28-5) at CANUCKS (26-27-7)
10 p.m. ET; SNP, FS-A, NHL.TV

Arizona and Vancouver each has 59 points, two behind the Colorado Avalanche, who hold the second wild card, and Chicago Blackhawks, and one point behind the Minnesota Wild.
Vancouver is 2-5-1 in its past eight games after going 4-1-1 in its previous six.
Ryan Spooner, acquired in a trade with the Edmonton Oilers for Sam Gagner on Saturday, will make his Canucks debut on a line with Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser.
Forward Richard Panik is expected to return after missing three games with an illness for the Coyotes, who are 4-2-0 in their past six games after a five-game losing streak (0-4-1).

Players to watch

Coyotes goalie Darcy Kuemper is 4-1-0 with a 1.97 goals-against average, .938 save percentage and one shutout in his past five starts.
Canucks center Elias Pettersson has 12 points (four goals, eight assists) in 11 games since returning from a knee injury.

They said it

"We are scratching and clawing all year and we can see in the standings we are getting closer and closer, but we need an extra push here to get above." -- Coyotes defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson
"Every point matters now. Every game matters and these kind of games are like playoff games for us, so it's going to be fun games, hopefully for the fans as well." -- Canucks center Elias Petersson

Coyotes projected lineup

Lawson Crouse -- Derek Stepan -- Josh Archibald
Conor Garland -- Nick Cousins -- Clayton Keller
Alex Galchenyuk -- Jordan Weal -- Richard Panik
Mario Kempe -- Brad Richardson -- Vinnie Hinostroza
Oliver Ekman-Larsson -- Niklas Hjalmarsson
Jakob Chychrun -- Alex Goligoski
Jordan Oesterle -- Kevin Connauton
Darcy Kuemper
Calvin Pickard
Scratched:Ilya Lyubushkin, Christian Fischer
Injured: Christian Dvorak (upper body), Jason Demers (lower body), Antti Raanta (lower body), Michael Grabner (eye), Nick Schmaltz (lower body), Kyle Capobianco (lower body)

Canucks projected lineup

Ryan Spooner -- Elias Pettersson -- Brock Boeser
Josh Leivo -- Bo Horvat -- Tyler Motte
Antoine Roussel -- Adam Gaudette -- Markus Granlund
Loui Eriksson -- Jay Beagle -- Tim Schaller
Ben Hutton -- Troy Stecher
Ashton Sautner -- Erik Gudbranson
Derrick Pouliot -- Alex Biega
Jacob Markstrom
Marek Mazanec
Scratched:Nikolay Goldobin, Luke Schenn, Zack MacEwen
Injured:Jake Virtanen (rib), Chris Tanev (ankle), Brandon Sutter (lower body), Alexander Edler (concussion), Sven Baertschi (concussion), Thatcher Demko (knee)

Status report

The Coyotes sent forward Michael Bunting to Tucson of the American Hockey League to make room for Panik. … Edler and Demko skated on their own but there is still no timetable for their return. … Sautner is making his season debut. He had two assists in his first five NHL games last season.

Stat pack

Galchenyuk has six points (four goals, two assists) in his past six games. … Boeser has scored in consecutive games.