{"id":540225,"date":"2026-04-04T13:02:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T13:02:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/540225\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T13:02:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T13:02:17","slug":"vancouver-returns-home-for-saturday-night-duel-against-utah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/540225\/","title":{"rendered":"Vancouver Returns Home For Saturday Night Duel Against Utah"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>NHL Predictions:\u00a0Utah Mammoth at Vancouver Canucks<\/p>\n<p>2025-2026 Season Series:\u00a0Utah 2-0 Vancouver<\/p>\n<p>Time: 7:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) | 4:00 p.m. Pacific<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/full-guide-for-how-to-stream-and-watch-nhl-hockey-games\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">How to Watch<\/a>: Sportsnet+, SNP, Utah16, ESPN+, NHL Centre Ice<\/p>\n<p>Location:\u00a0Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia<\/p>\n<p>Vancouver returns home to Rogers Arena for a brief two-game home stand, starting with a game against the Utah Mammoth. Utah sits at 39-30-6 after 75 games, with 84 points, while Vancouver sits at 22-45-8 after 75 games, with 52 points. This marks the third and final meeting between these two teams. Utah won the last meeting, 6-2, on February 2nd.<\/p>\n<p>The Mammoth Story<\/p>\n<p>Utah needs to get itself Stanley Cup playoff-ready, as they have been in the same spot in the Western Conference for a long time now. They are currently in the first wild card spot, with no real danger of missing the playoffs, but out of reach for a top-three spot in the Central Division. The question will be, how much motivation will they have down the stretch? They still need to win a few more games to clinch a spot in the postseason, so it would be in their best interest to play some of their best hockey now. Fortunately, their offence ranks in the top half of the league, and their goals against ranks in the top five in the league, which is a good sign.<\/p>\n<p>Credit Image: \u00a9 Alex Cave\/ZUMA Press Wire<\/p>\n<p>The Canucks Story<\/p>\n<p>Rejoice, team tank! Vancouver has clinched the best odds for the <a href=\"https:\/\/moneypuck.com\/predictions.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">NHL Draft Lottery<\/a> and has guaranteed a pick in the top three in the upcoming draft. They continue to play out the string, but they have no stress on them, which can be beneficial for young players to learn the ways of the league. Consider it like a training camp for the up-and-coming prospects, such as <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/b\/buiumze01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-04-04_hr\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Zeev Buium<\/a>, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/p\/petteel02.html\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Elias Pettersson<\/a> (the defenceman), <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/w\/willato01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-04-04_hr\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Tom Willander<\/a>, and <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/o\/ohgreli01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-04-04_hr\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Liam Ohgren<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Starting Goalies<\/p>\n<p>Below are the projected starters for tonight\u2019s game. Please check social media for the most updated information before locking in your daily fantasy lineups.<\/p>\n<p>For Utah,\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/v\/vejmeka01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-01_hr\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Karel Vejmelka<\/a>\u00a0will be the projected starter. In 58 games this season, he has a record of 34-19-3, a 2.68 goals-against average, and an .899 save percentage. He is currently ranked second in the league in wins and leads the league in games played among goaltenders.<\/p>\n<p>For Vancouver, we expect\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/l\/lankike01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-01_hr\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Kevin Lankinen<\/a>\u00a0to get the start. In 44 games this season, he has a record of 9-26-5, a 3.69 goals-against average, and an .875 save percentage.<\/p>\n<p>Prediction and Best Bets<\/p>\n<p>The Mammoth are a strong, structured team which can overwhelm the Canucks in all situations. However, Vancouver is playing under no stress whatsoever, which can spur them to a strong performance. We will still predict the Mammoth to come out of this game with a win.<\/p>\n<p>Prediction: Mammoth win 4-2.<\/p>\n<p>Best Bets<\/p>\n<p>To wrap things up, here are our anytime goal scorer picks. For the Mammoth, we will pick <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/g\/guentdy01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-04-04_hr\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Dylan Guenther<\/a> to get a goal. On the Canucks side, we will pick <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/d\/debruja01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-04-04_hr\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Jake DeBrusk<\/a> to score.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credit: Rob Gray-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>Please play responsibly, check for your local rules and age restrictions; some jurisdictions require ages 21+. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NHL Predictions:\u00a0Utah Mammoth at Vancouver Canucks 2025-2026 Season Series:\u00a0Utah 2-0 Vancouver Time: 7:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540226,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5128],"tags":[894,5,4,40212,893,27,28653,5313],"class_list":{"0":"post-540225","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-vancouver-canucks","8":"tag-canucks","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-utah-mammoth-predictions","12":"tag-vancouver","13":"tag-vancouver-canucks","14":"tag-vancouver-canucks-predictions","15":"tag-vancouvercanucks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116346574924084044","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}