A year’s difference.
You may remember last season concluding with four somewhat meaningless games against the Canucks. They were rescheduled from earlier in the year due to COVID and actually took place while other teams started the first round of the 2021 NHL Playoffs.
The effort was extremely questionable in three and a half of four games from those wearing Canucks jerseys.
Calling the puck pressure “beer league… would be an affront to functioning alcoholics across the continent.
While we can always delve into the consequences of recovering from a four goal Canucks rally to win 6-5 in overtime on May 16 ultimately putting the Flames one point ahead of Chicago, which in turn led to the Flames drafting Matt Coronato instead of rookie Blue Jacket center Cole Sillinger— the games at the time were viewed as meaningless and the effort showed on the Canucks side.
Don’t expect the same Canucks this time around.
6-2-2 in their last ten including two wins against the desperate Golden Knights. 30-14-9 since the hiring of Bruce Boudreau on December 5, 2021. The 13th best record in that time. The Flames 11th.
The Vancouver Canucks are a playoff team by any other metric than standings.
They also owe Calgary one. The Canucks are 1-1-1 against the Flames this year. Their single win being largely due to Gord Dwyer flexing his “game management… to the tune of 34-2 penalty minute differential.
You know a game is off the rails when a former Lady Byng recipient gets kicked out on a misconduct.
This is a long way of saying: don’t expect a cake walk like last year. The Canucks have underwent a major culture change and they have something to prove going into tonight’s game against the 48-20-10 Calgary Flames.
Calgary meanwhile has less to prove, but more to gain by playing well given they want to hit round one full stride.
Projected lineup via Pat Steinberg. @Fan960Steinberg
Gaudreau-Lindholm-Tkachuk Mangiapane-Backlund-Toffoli Dube-Jarnkrok-Coleman Lucic-Lewis-Ritchie Hanifin-Andersson Kylington-Tanev Zadorov-Gudbranson
Vladar Wolf
Wolf’s Call Dustin Wolf has been called up from the Stockton Heat to serve as backup to Daniel Vladar. A nice late season pay check for the 21 year old who has certainly earned it. 46 appearances, .924 save percentage, 2.33 GAA. Not bad for a rookie. That’s not just stat sniping either, Wolf is third in appearances and second in total saves. (1308)
Sutter is giving a maintenance day to starter Jacob Markstrom. While there is much ado about how the 6’6… Swede doesn’t need more rest, most can tell he’s not in the same form as he was in early season. A rest will do him good.
Stockton Fun Facts On the note if the affiliate, here are some fun truths.
Daniil Chechelev made his first career AHL start in a 5-4 overtime loss on Friday night. You may remember the Russian prospect from an infamous winning streak in the MHL and VHL following his draft year. He didn’t have the best game last night, but it’s a start. .848 for 5 goals in 33 shots against.
He did record an assist, which puts him at a point per game in the AHL. Hopefully that offensive prowess translates at the next level.
Speaking of rookies, Jakob Pelletier had a four point night in the loss. That serves as a single game record for the 21 year old. Jakob is second in AHL rookie scoring with 62 points in 63 games, but has played four less games than #1 JJ Peterka who has 64 points.
Matthew Phillips leads the Heat in scoring this season. 67 points in 62 games. His 30 goals are a club record with three games left in the regular season. One has to wonder when the 24 year old Calgarian gets another look. It would be heartbreaking to see a hometown kid never be given a fair chance at carving out a spot on the Flames.
Jusso Valimaki has one assist and is -4 in four games since being sent down on April 14. The tools are all still there.
Taking Advantage For as respectable as the Canucks have become since bringing in Bruce Boudreau as head coach, they still have a major flaw in their game.
Their penalty kill. 74.1% puts them below the Coyotes, Kraken, and Flyers to name a few. Bad.
Luckily for the Canucks, Gord Dwyer is reffing this one, so they’ll only need to kill one penalty and the Flames will have to kill eight.
I joke, but hey, if the game gets out of hand; you know who to blame. Gord’s had a rough season. He also reffed the 7-3 win over the Wild where the whistles got put away in the first and the game got out of hand.
Total Penalties Called Feb 26 vs. Wild 1st Period: 1 2nd Period: 6 3rd Period: 6
Oliver Kylington was hurt that game after going head first into the boards in a puck race with Ryan Hartman. Hartman didn’t do anything particularly wrong in the play, but Dwyer sent him to the box to calm the other team down. What infraction is that called again?
The NHL should at least pick and choose where they slot these guys. The Wild and Flames have a history of not getting along.
That includes tonight’s game. Zadorov threw a huge hit on Dickenson in the preseason and Schenn stood up for him. The Flames and Canucks have been at it since then.
Puck drop at around 8:10 pm mst.
Trevor Neufeld
Statistics via naturalstattrick, moneypuck and nhl.com.
@Trevor_Neufeld