The Vancouver Canucks appear to have hit a home run with Kevin Lankinen, who signed with the club back on September 21st following weeks of rumours surrounding the two being a potential match amid Thatcher Demko's injury situation.
With the Canucks wrapping up their road trip on Thursday night against Los Angeles, head coach Rick Tocchet turned to the aforementioned Kevin Lankinen to get his ninth start of the 2024-25 season.
Thanks to a two-point night from Quinn Hughes and Kevin Lankinen making 26 saves on 28 shots, the Vancouver Canucks defeated the Los Angeles Kings by a score of 4 to 2. The Canucks are third in the Pacific Division with a record of 7-2-3 through 12 games and are two points back of Vegas for first place.
With the victory on Thursday night, Kevin Lankinen improved to 7-0-2 on the season with a 2.08 goals against average, a .923 save percentage and one shutout.
According to Trevor Beggs of Locked on Canucks, Kevin Lankinen has now tied Kirk McLean for the longest point streak to start a season in franchise history at nine games.
While Lankinen has entered the Canucks' record books to start the season, he's still got a long way to go if he wants to break the team's longest streak without a regulation loss. The record is currently held by Roberto Luongo during the 2010-11 campaign when he was 15-0-6 amid a 21-game run that year.
Kevin Lankinen will look to break Kirk McLean's franchise record in his next start, which could come tomorrow night as the Canucks return home to face Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers - a rematch of their 2024 Stanley Cup Playoff series. Puck drop is set for just after 7 pm PT on CBC and Sportsnet as part of Hockey Night in Canada.
POLL | ||
Will Kevin Lankinen break Kirk McLean's record on Saturday night? | ||
Yes | 170 | 67.7 % |
No | 81 | 32.3 % |
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