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Two games into another road survival test, the Vancouver Canucks are neither sinking nor swimming but merely floating.

Yes, we understand that floating, technically, counts as swimming. But in their 5-2 loss Saturday against the Minnesota Wild, the Canucks failed to build on Thursdayâ€s gutsy, 4-3 shootout win in St. Louis. Vancouver has not won consecutive games in two weeks — since the teamâ€s injury crisis accelerated in Washington on Oct. 19 when centres Filip Chytil and Teddy Blueger were injured during a road win against the Capitals.

With eight skaters out of their lineup, the Canucks are 6-7-0. Saturdayâ€s loss stoked the pressure to win their trip finale Monday against the Nashville Predators, lest Vancouver descends two games below .500 for the first time this National Hockey League season.

Since returning home last week from a difficult five-game tour, part of seven games in 11 nights, the Canucks have alternated losses and wins over their last five contests.

Given the avalanche of injuries, this constitutes surviving. But even in a sputtering Western Conference race, teams can tread water at .500 for only so long before losing touch with the final playoff spot.

The most important Canuck on Saturday didnâ€t even play.

Team captain and game-breaker Quinn Hughes, who has headlined the injuries while missing the last four games, skated in Minnesota, should get on the ice again Sunday in Tennessee and could play Monday against the Predators.

It would have been nice if Elias Pettersson or Brock Boeser or Jake DeBrusk or Evander Kane was the most important Canuck against the Wild, but the scoring was left to checker Drew Oâ€Connor, whose pair of goals were his first ones of the season.

Even goalie Thatcher Demko couldnâ€t save his team and looked mortal in Minnesota after opening the season at a super-human level.

Demko spilled the puck into his own net on Jonas Brodinâ€s shot from an acute angle that made it 4-1 5:46 into the third period, just 99 seconds after the goalie was unable to cleanly catch Vinnie Hinostrozaâ€s shot on a two-on-one after the Wild forward easily bypassed rooted Canucks defenceman Tyler Myers in the neutral zone. Demko changed his catching glove after the second goal.

Brodinâ€s goal was poor but, Demko, on the whole, certainly was not. He made three sparkling right-to-left saves in the middle period to keep the Canucks in it.

But with everyone not named Kiefer Sherwood (and Oâ€Connor on Saturday) struggling to score, the Canucks canâ€t give up more than three goals and expect to win. Demko is now 4-4-0 in 10 starts this season, and in his four losses the Canucks have generated a total of four goals of run support.

Itâ€s hard not to be impressed by defence prospect Tom Willander. In his first three NHL games — at age 20 — the minor-league callup is displaying the composure, defensive IQ and mobility that make him the organizationâ€s No. 1 prospect.

In one sequence Saturday, Willander challenged the puck in the offensive zone on a Wild breakout and disrupted Kiril Karprizovâ€s outlet. But as the puck bounced fortuitously for the Minnesota star, Willander was already turning and pivoting to stay goal-side of the play and prevent an outnumbered rush.

Sure, Willander isnâ€t killing penalties and is getting some sheltering, but you can see why the Canucks have little appetite for trading the Swede despite the desperation for help at centre. He played 16:08 in Minnesota and led Vancouver skaters with a 66 per cent share of five-on-five shot attempts.

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Goal-less Canuck Evander Kane, the $5.125-million June pickup from the Edmonton Oilers, has been a non-factor much of the season but had no chance to be a factor Saturday when offsetting minor penalties with Marcus Foligno at 8:12 of the third period were followed by offsetting misconduct penalties at 10:28. So the Canucks†second-line winger, who had a goal taken off the board in St. Louis on a coachâ€s challenge, played 16 seconds of the final 13 minutes when his team was trailing 4-2.

Kane has five assists in 13 games as a Canuck. In fairness, he is far from the only top-six forward failing to make a dent offensively.

First-line winger Brock Boeser is pointless in four of five games since returning from a personal leave, although it was encouraging that he played Saturday after getting hit in the groin by a slapshot in the first minute in St. Louis (a game weâ€re not counting against him).

Aside from the shootout winner in St. Louis, winger Jake DeBrusk has one goal and no assists in the last eight games.

Top centre Elias Pettersson, albeit doing a lot of heavy lifting defensively against the oppositionâ€s best players, has no points and just four shots on net in the last three games. And top defenceman Filip Hronek, given a chance to run the power play in Hughes†absence, is also pointless in the last three.

The Canucks are still waiting for a skater other than Sherwood, who has nine goals this season but registered just one shot against the Wild, to step up and win a game for them during the injury crisis.

After looking like one of the more dangerous Canucks in three home games after Fridayâ€s trade from the Chicago Blackhawks, Lukas Reichel was missing in Minnesota, failing to generate a shot and finishing minus-two in 13:14 of ice time – his lowest in five games with Vancouver.

A fairer sample will be something like 50 games, not five, for the former first-round pick. But Reichel is getting a tremendous opportunity to earn an offensive role with a team desperate for goals, but has retreated in the first two games of this road trip.

Canuck Drew Oâ€Connor: “There’s some things we need to clean up defensively, help Demmer out a little bit more. I think there’s some things on the PK we can improve upon … things I can be better on on the PK. I thought we did some good things, but definitely some areas to work on.â€

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Thereâ€s low event hockey, and then thereâ€s no event hockey.

After a six-goal outburst against the Montreal Canadiens Thursday, the Edmonton Oilers appeared to revert to their former selves — a low-scoring, low-event, low-excitement unit that found a way to lose to the Seattle Kraken in a 3-2 snoozer Saturday night in Seattle.

The head coach saw promise in the performance however, on a night where the high danger chances were scored 9-4 in the Oilers†favour, according to Natural Stat Trick.

“There were a lot of things I liked. We had more scoring chances than (in all) but one game this year,†said Knoblauch, who was more concerned with his teamâ€s defensive posture. “Whether it was a bad pinch or a forward not coming back … thatâ€s where Seattle has all of their chances.â€

Ex-Oiler Jordan Eberle scored twice, and the Oilers couldnâ€t find a goal from its entire forward corps. Theyâ€ll roll over the border into Vancouver for a date with the Canucks Sunday, ending an eight-game stretch in which Edmonton played in eight different cities.

“Thereâ€s no secret formula, no secret solution. Itâ€s just putting in the hard work,†said Darnell Nurse, whose team is 4-4-2 and still searching for its game. “For us, itâ€s the connectiveness we talk about — five players all over the ice. Work ethic, winning our battles — the cliché things.â€

The road games are stacking up on these Oilers, to be fair. They played five games in the Eastern time zone, one at home in the Mountain time zone, and now close out this stretch with games in the Pacific time zone at Seattle and Vancouver.

What resulted was yet another two-goal outing for an Oilers team that’s had trouble finding the net this season. Evan Bouchard ripped home his first of the year on the power play, and Nurse scored his first on a rare net-front deflection for the 3-2 goal.

Thatâ€s two goals by defencemen, while the 12 forwards were shut out — with only Leon Draisaitl (0-2-2) and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (0-1-1) recording points.

Meanwhile, all three Seattle goals came off the rush, while the Oilers couldnâ€t buy a goal in that fashion.

“Our intensity was better, our execution with the puck was better. We created more scoring chances,†Knoblauch said. “But if you canâ€t score off the rush, and theyâ€re scoring off the rush, it makes a big difference.â€

One and (hopefully not) done

Oilers fans held a lot of hope that a pair of 21-year-old wingers could step into the lineup and help offensively. But so far Ike Howard and Matt Savoie — despite both having their chance to start games on Connor McDavidâ€s wing — have been less than productive at one point apiece.

Savoie started Thursdayâ€s game against the Montreal Canadiens on a line with McDavid and Draisaitl, but was long gone from that unit when head coach Kris Knoblauch blew his lines up midway through an unsatisfactory Oilers effort.

On Saturday in Seattle it was Howardâ€s turn, as he opened on a unit with McDavid and right winger Andrew Mangiapane. By the time the third period began however, Howard had been replaced by Jack Roslovic, as Knoblauch continued his search for a connected, goal-scoring lineup in a season that has given him precious little of that.

“Iâ€m not over-thinking it, to be honest. Just excited to get out there and play a good game,†a hopeful Howard said before the game.

Howard has a goal, is minus-1 and has nine shots on target over his first eight NHL games. Heâ€s a shooter, you can see that. But thereâ€s so much more that has to happen at this level in order to find yourself in prime scoring position, with time and space to use his shot.

“Itâ€s a long process to get to where I want to be, but itâ€s been feeling good. Itâ€s gotten better each game,†Howard said. “Iâ€ve always had that shooterâ€s instinct. Maybe itâ€s something youâ€re born with. I love to shoot pucks, get good looks, score goals.â€

His coach sees progress, even if he thought Rosolovic had more going in his game Saturday.

“Things early on were closing on him fast. It felt like he didnâ€t have an out with the puck, or didnâ€t know what the next play was,†Knoblauch said of Howard. “Now, he seems confident. Things arenâ€t closing, and heâ€s able to make the next play.â€

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After Estevaoâ€s late winner at Stamford Bridge last night Chelsea Enzo Maresca set off on a manic touchline dash to celebrate with his team. It was maybe the most fun thing Maresca has ever done and he was sent off, meaning he will watch Chelseaâ€s next match from the stands, but Barney Ronay writes that it is his opposite number yesterday, Arne Slot, who has bigger issues to address when he is next on the touchline:

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At Old Trafford, the dark clouds lifted lifted on Saturday as Benjamin Sesko clicked with his teammates and as he Mason Mount got themselves on the scoresheet. Post-match Mount insisted that the club are “100% behind†embattled boss Ruben Amorim:

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Arsenal, the latest team to inherit the moniker of champions in waiting, handily saw off West Ham on Saturday but they are counting the cost of that victory. Martin Ødegaard picked up a knee injury and had to come off before half time again. Declan Rice, who scored the gameâ€s first goal, also departed early with a back injury.

More from Ed Aarons here:

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Liverpoolâ€s third defeat in a row has seen the spotlight move on to the relationship, or lack thereof, between Mohamed Salah and Alexander Isak. The Reds couldnâ€t break down a Chelsea team missing almost all of their first choice centre-backs. Liverpool head coach Arne Slot is not concerned, yet: “The more they play together the more they will connect,†the Liverpool manager said. “You have to work really hard to reach a certain level and then itâ€s very hard in football because you also play against very good teams to keep that level going. What I mean by that is consistency.â€

More from Slot here:

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Preamble

Hello, good morning and welcome to Sundayâ€s Matchday live! Before we head of on our international breaks we have one more action-packed day of Premier League action, with five fixtures and the opportunity for UK viewers to go multiview on their Sky boxes with four of those at 2pm.

Before any of that, four fixtures in the WSL. The pick of those is Tottenham v Brighton, two teams hoping to break into the European places.

Then, the East Anglian derby is a lovely little midday livener. Amazingly Ipswich havenâ€t beaten Norwich since 2009. If you want some bizarre pop culture context, the last time the Tractor Boys won this fixture Kanye West hadnâ€t yet interrupted Taylor Swiftâ€s acceptance speech for winning best female video at the MTV Awards (for what itâ€s worth, Beyoncé did have one of the best videos of all time!).

In the Premier League, the narrativecomes from St James†Park but not the home team, who are simply going about their business. Yes, I am of course referring to Ange Postecoglou and the threat hanging over his continued employment as the man in the dugout for Nottingham Forest. The chances of another game without a win are high for the Australian gaffer, with Newcastle nothing if not solid.

Did you know that Crystal Palace havenâ€t lost in ages? They take that proud record to Everton, where the Eagles†ability to recover from a gruelling European away day will be tested. Likewise Aston Villa, who are playing Burnley in a game for the soul of the colour claret.

Quite why Wolves v Brighton is being played on a Sunday at 2pm is not clear. Neither had a European game in midweek, but here we are. Wolves were better at Tottenham last time out, Brighton won at Stamford Bridge. This one is anyoneâ€s guess.

Then in the headline slot, Brentford look to be the Manchester slayers for the second week in a row. City will probably be less accomodating than United, but they are vulnerable, as was evidenced at the Stade Louis II in midweek.

But before we jump into todayâ€s action, letâ€s quickly recap some of the headlines from Saturday…

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MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. — To no one’s surprise, Jim Montgomery saw some good, and some not-so-good to open St. Louis…