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NEXT GAME

Thursday

Arizona Coyotes vs. Vancouver Canucks

7 p.m., Rogers Arena, TV: SNETP; Radio: SNET 650 AM

“It’s exciting to play a big game. As we go on in the season, there’ll be more games like this. But this is the position we wanted to be in when we talked about our expectations at the start of the year.”

While the larger hockey world may be slow to take notice, two of its lost boys meet Thursday night at Rogers Arena in Vancouver in a game that has profound playoff implications. For a number of years now, the Canucks and the ‘Yotes have engaged in a quasi-rivalry of their own, two bottom-feeders slapping at each other to determine 26th or, dare to dream, 25th overall in the NHL standings.

But this season a transformation has taken place with both franchises. Heading into Thursday’s clash of the titans, the Coyotes sit first in the Pacific — and sorry that still doesn’t sound right — and the Canucks, for the moment, occupy the first wild-card playoff berth. They were also one of five teams clustered within a point of each other in the West before Wednesday’s games, meaning every contest is of vital importance to the Canucks.

You just sense the games with the Coyotes means a little more to the two coaches.

“I think he’s a really good coach who’s done a good job with his team,” Green says of Tocchet, before adding: “How we do in these games (the Canucks and Coyotes meet four times between now and the end of the season) will go a long way in determining where we finish, but I have a lot of belief in our team.”