Canucks juggle lines in hopes of igniting offense as they host the Flames (flames)

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Canucks juggle lines in hopes of igniting offense as they host the Flames

By Carol Schram

Feb 9, 2019 • 2:57 pm

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Saturday February 9 - Vancouver Canucks vs. Calgary Flames - 7 p.m. - CBC, Sportsnet, Sportsnet 650

Vancouver Canucks: 55 GP, 24-24-7, 55 pts, fourth in Pacific Division Calgary Flames: 54 GP, 34-15-5, 73 pts, first in Pacific Division

As things stand right now, if the Vancouver Canucks do manage to sneak into the second wild-card spot and make the playoffs, that'd set up a first-round matchup with the Calgary Flames, who have been the top team in the Western Conference since around New Year's.

So much has changed since the same two teams met the last time the Canucks made the playoffs, in Willie Desjardins' first year behind the bench back in 2014-15. That was a 2-vs-3 Pacific Division matchup. With 101 points, Vancouver was the higher-seeded team, while the Flames had 97.

During that series, the Canucks were juggling a goaltending tandem of Eddie Lack and a not-so-healthy Ryan Miller, while the Flames were going back and forth between Jonas Hiller and Karri Ramo. Calgary's bench boss was Bob Hartley, who went on to win that Jack Adams Award as coach of the year later that spring, then was fired by the Flames just one year later. He's now the head coach of Avangard Omsk in the KHL.

Talk about turnover! Only four Canucks players from that series remain on the Vancouver roster, and two of them won't play tonight due to injury: Bo Horvat, Sven Baertschi, Chris Tanev and Alex Edler.

Here are the latest updates on the injured veterans:

On the Calgary side, six of the 20 Flames skaters who appeared in that series are still with the team: Sean Monahan, Johnny Gaudreau, Mikael Backlund and Sam Bennett up front, and Mark Giordano and T.J. Brodie on defense.

That was the rookie season for both Gaudreau and Bennett—and both were great in the series. Since then, the path hasn't been smooth for Bennett, who has basically settled into a third line role despite having been picked fourth overall in 2014. He has 9-11-20 in 52 games this season.

Gaudreau, of course, has turned into one of the biggest draft steals of all time. Selected 104th overall in 2011, he hit a career high with 84 points last season and looks set to blow that out of the water this year. Roughly two-thirds of the way through the year, Johnny Hockey sits fifth in league scoring with 29-45-74, seven points behind leader Nikita Kucherov—and there's talk that he could be a contender for the Hart.

Here's how Bill Peters ran his lines at practice on Friday:

The Flames are 7-2-1 in their last 10 games, but are coming off a 5-2 home loss against San Jose on Thursday night. Saturday's game kicks off a four-game road trip that will see Calgary face off against Tampa Bay, Florida and Pittsburgh next week.

As for the Canucks, Travis Green is not heeding my pleas to put Chris Tanev back on the right side, but he has made some tweaks in his forward deployment—presumably in an attempt to stir up a bit more offense. After their strong 5-1 win over Colorado to kick off their road trip, Vancouver scored just six goals in their three subsequent games—and that kind of production won't earn teams very many points.

Antoine Roussel will be Scott Oake's guest on After Hours tonight—and should be very entertaining. Catch that if you can.

Roussel has been moved up onto Bo Horvat's line, along with Nikolay Goldobin. Markus Granlund drops to more of a checking role, and Josh Leivo draws in with Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser.

As good as Calgary has been this year, the Canucks hold a 2-1-0 edge in the season series so far.

The Flames were the first team to get a close-up look at Elias Pettersson's slick shot when they dropped a 5-2 decision at Rogers Arena in the first game of the year on October 3.

The pinpoint accuracy that Petey displayed in that first game is proving to be his trademark. He's currently tops in shooting percentage in the entire NHL among players who have taken more than 10 shots on goal this season, with 25 goals on 92 shots for a mind-blowing success rate of 27.2 percent. No one else is over 25 and only 10 players are above 20: Alex Chiasson, Brayden Point, Valtteri Filppula, Leon Draisaitl, Matt Duchene, Tomas Hertl, Joe Pavelski, Mark Scheifele and David Perron. Good company!

On December 29, Brock Boeser and Pettersson had the regulation goals before Alex Edler ended the game in overtime at the Saddledome. In between, on October 6, Vancouver had a 4-3 lead at the Saddledome after 40 minutes before giving up four third-period goals, including two into empty nets, for a 7-4 loss.

Nothing definite on starting goalies, but I'm expecting Jacob Markstrom vs. David Rittich. Though the Flames have pretty-much split their goaltending duties this year, Rittich has proven to be the better option even though he's making $800,000 this year compared to Mike Smith's $5.67 million.

Smith has a 14-11-1 record with a 3.11 GAA and .889 save percentage. Rittich is 20-4-4, 2.54 and .916—and as an RFA who will turn 27 this summer, he looks like he's in line to take over Calgary's starting job next season. Smith, who turns 37 in March, will be a UFA at the end of the year.

Down on the farm, the Utica Comets bounced back from a 2-0 deficit to earn a 5-2 home win over the Lehigh Valley Phantoms on Friday. In his first game back in the lineup after missing two months with an injury, defenseman Ashton Sautner scored his third of the year and was named the game's first star. Reid Boucher tallied his 20th and the other goals were scored by Carter Bancks, Tom Pyatt and Brendan Gaunce. Michael Leighton got the win in net, kicking off a weekend that will see the Comets host Rochester on Saturday before visiting Bridgeport for an afternoon contest on Sunday.

In three starts so far, Leighton has a 2-1-0 record with the Comets, with a 3.00 goals-against average and .908 save percentage—significantly better than his record with the Ontario Reign from earlier in the season.

With that, you're up to date. Enjoy the game!

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