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The Vancouver Canucks hope to rebound from an opening night loss during back-to-back games against their old Northwest Division Rivals this weekend.
The Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames are supposed to be two of the weaker teams in the new Pacific Division, but the Canucks will need to play hard if they want to earn some points in the standings.
Vancouver lost its season opener 4-1 against a very good San Jose Sharks team. The team will need a 60-minute effort both nights to be successful in its weekend games.
John Tortorella announced at Saturday's gameday skate that Alex Burrows is out of action with a foot injury. The team doesn't have any extra forwards, so they'll dress seven defensemen.
With the back-to-back games, Eddie Lack could make his NHL debut in net this weekend. I'd be surprised if Luongo didn't get the start for the home opener on Saturday, but Lack could play Sunday.
Oilers at Canucks - Saturday October 5 - 7 p.m. - CBC
Like the Canucks, the Edmonton Oilers opened the season under their new coach with a loss. They let a 4-2 lead slip away and lost 5-4 to the Winnipeg Jets.
Not so long ago, a game against the Oilers meant an easy win for Vancouver, with a chance for Daniel and Henrik Sedin to pad their scoring stats against a sub-par defense. Last season, things started to change. A win was no longer assured; in fact, Edmonton won the season series 3-2.
Just like San Jose, the Oilers also won both preseason games against the Canucks in September. They embarrassed Roberto Luongo with four quick goals in his first game back at Rogers Arena, then beat the Canucks 5-2 in a scrappy affair three days later at Rexall Place.
The Canucks are promising to dazzle fans with a new, state-of-the-art game intro, but the fireworks may turn out to be on the ice. Dale Weise and Zack Kassian were both suspended in preseason after taking liberties against the Oilers—Weise elbowed Taylor Hall in the head, while Kassian broke Sam Gagner's jaw with a careless swing of his stick.
After that game, retribution was on the mind of the Oilers' Ben Eager:
Eager has since been sent down to Oklahoma City of the AHL.
The Oilers acquired enforcer Steve MacIntyre to add toughness to their lineup, but he'll miss Saturday's game with a knee injury.
Dallas Eakins
told the Edmonton Journal that he has no intention of escalating the feud.
"I don’t know if we even think about that,” said Eakins. “We’ve instructed our guys to play hard every night and every shift but we’re not going to look for guys who have made dumb plays. The league handled it and we’re good with it."
We'll see what happens on the ice tonight.
Henrik Sedin will be the guest after the game on CBC After Hours. If you have a question for the captain, you can tweet it to
@CBCAfterHours.
Canucks at Flames - Sunday October 6 - 5 p.m. - Sportsnet Pacific
Against all odds, the Calgary Flames have started as one of the hottest teams in the league.
They opened their season on the road with a shootout loss to the Washington Capitals and a win over the Columbus Blue Jackets.
New captain Mark Giordano leads the early scoring race for the Flames with three assists, and 18-year-old Sean Monahan tallied his first NHL goal on Friday to open the scoring against Columbus.
Sunday will be Calgary's home opener and will likely be emotional after the Saddledome was badly damaged by flooding earlier this summer.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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