Five things to watch when the Calgary Flames open their home schedule against the Vancouver Canucks:
1. Austin Czarnik's promotion Mid-way through the season opener, Czarnik was moved up to the 2nd line alongside Mikael Backlund and Matthew Tkachuk. He seemed to give them an immediate spark and the numbers back that up as the Flames out-attempted the Canucks 12-3 in just under five minutes with that trio on the ice. He is a really creative offensive player and Backlund/Tkachuk are more than capable of making up for any defensive shortcomings. I think this line could be really good.
2. Power play struggles Vancouver had a really good penalty kill last year and they returned basically everyone who played a prominent role. Knowing that, I didn't expect the Flames to walk all over them while up a man in the season opener. I did, however, think they'd be able to generate more than four chances on seven man-advantage opportunities. Even with all the new personnel – on the ice and behind the bench – that is pathetic. I would expect a better showing tonight. I mean, it can't really be worse.
3. A vulnerable right side If I'm Vancouver, I am targeting the right side of the Flames' defense every chance I get. Michael Stone and Dalton Prout are not fleet of foot so they can be beat wide with speed. They're also horrendous puck movers who struggle breaking out of the zone.
4. Goaltending Mike Smith was horrendous in the preseason and he allowed four goals on 22 shots in his first game of meaningful hockey. That's simply not good enough, especially against a team lacking high-end offensive players and shooting talent. They need him to be better tonight.
5. Noah Hanifin I thought he was terrific in the season opener. His exits were good, he was consistently getting involved offensively, and the ice was severely tilted in Calgary's favor every time he was out there. He did a lot of the heavy lifting on the 2nd pairing – Travis Hamonic is not a great puck mover/rusher – and now he'll be relied upon even more so with Stone riding shotgun (as mentioned above, he really struggles breaking out). We'll see how he handles it.
Here are the projected lineups:
Calgary (via @Fan960Steinberg)
Johnny Gaudreau - Sean Monahan - Elias Lindholm Matthew Tkachuk - Mikael Backlund - Austin Czarnik Dillon Dube - Derek Ryan - James Neal Sam Bennett - Mark Jankowski - Micheal Frolik
Mark Giordano - T.J. Brodie Noah Hanifin - Michael Stone Juuso Valimaki - Dalton Prout
Mike Smith
Vancouver (via DailyFaceoff.com)
Sven Baertschi - Bo Horvat - Brock Boeser Nikolay Goldobin - Elias Pettersson - Loui Eriksson Tyler Motte - Brandon Sutter - Jake Virtanen Brendan Leipsic - Jay Beagle - Markus Granlund
Alex Edler - Chris Tanev Michael Del Zotto - Troy Stecher Derrick Pouliot - Erik Gudbranson
Jacob Markstrom
Puck drop is just after 10:00 eastern and can be seen on CBC, CITY and Sportsnet360.
Numbers via NaturalStatTrick.com and Corsica.Hockey.
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