The Vancouver Canucks seem to have settled on a starting goaltender for Wednesday’s season opener.
Head coach Rick Tocchet is expected to give Arturs Silovs the nod for the matchup against the Calgary Flames. This means that veteran Kevin Lankinen will start as the backup.
“Whoever starts, probably Silovs, on Wednesday, we’ll go from there,” said Tocchet when discussing the team’s goalie plans recently.
“I didn’t know [Lankinen] that well, prior to the trade, little bit in Nashville because we played against them but I don’t have a book on him. So when he got here those two games, the way he’s practiced, really good guy, I’m like ‘wow this guy is a good goalie.’”
Silovs came up huge for the Canucks during last year’s playoff run. He was thrust into action as the third-string goalie and played really well, helping the team make it to Game 7 of the second round.
The young Latvian netminder also played very well in the team’s recent final preseason game against the Edmonton Oilers. He allowed just one goal on 29 shots against.
The Canucks have roughly four weeks until Thatcher Demko is expected back from injury. It will rest on Tocchet to divvy up the starts between Silovs and Lankinen during that time.
“I don’t know who is going to play the lion’s share but definitely Lanks is going to get in there,” explained the head coach. “I don’t know when it will be but it’s not going to be three weeks from now, put it that way. It’s going to be fairly soon.”
Lankinen has more NHL experience than Silovs and put together a solid season as a backup for the Nashville Predators last season. He recorded a 11-6-0 record last season with a 2.82 goals-against-average and a .908% save percentage.