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Demko and Horvat return for Canucks' 1st game of the year vs. the Flames |
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Saturday, January 29 - Vancouver Canucks at Calgary Flames - 7 p.m. PT
Thatcher Demko and Bo Horvat will be back in the lineup as the Vancouver Canucks continue their road trip in Calgary on Saturday night.
Demko will start in net opposite Calgary's Jacob Markstrom, coach Bruce Boudreau confirmed during Saturday morning's media availability. And with Jaroslav Halak set to back up, Spencer Martin will most likely be assigned to the taxi squad.
Goalie Michael DiPietro and forward Sheldon Dries were removed from the taxi squad on Friday and re-assigned to Abbotsford, while defenseman Noah Juulsen was recalled on Saturday morning.
These are relatively easy roster moves at the moment, as the Baby Canucks are also on the prairies. They're set for weekend matinees against the Manitoba Moose on both Saturday and Sunday.
Juulsen's recall comes after Tucker Poolman played only one period in his return to Winnipeg on Thursday. He isn't in Covid protocol, but he has been ruled out against the Flames.
With Kyle Burroughs also injured, that leaves only Tyler Myers and Luke Schenn healthy on the right side of the defense. So I expect that Juulsen will play his third game for Vancouver on Saturday night. He also appeared in the Canucks' last two games before the holiday break, averaging 16:16 of ice time.
Demko said he had no symptoms this time around — his issue was simply getting his viral load down to where he could clear the NHL's requirements. And Horvat has been staying fit and keeping sharp while he has been serving out his quarantine requirements south of the border.
Saturday's matchup will be the first of the year between the Canucks and Flames, and will feature the Demko/Markstrom duel for the finale of Hockey Day in Canada. I guess they wanted to give fans a break after subjecting us to 10 Flames/Canucks games last season, where Vancouver went 3-5-2.
Heading into Saturday's full day of hockey action, the Flames are sitting in the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference, with 46 points in 39 games played. Red hot to start the season, their season got derailed when they became the first NHL team to have Covid really rip through their dressing room.
Their circumstances have improved since they got back into action after Christmas, and they are 3-2-0 in their last five games. But all told, they're 5-6-0 since Christmas. And while they're now back at home, Saturday's game will be their third in four nights, after they followed up a 6-0 shellacking of Columbus on Wednesday with a 5-1 loss in St. Louis on Thursday.
Markstrom, in particular, could be tired. He played both games of that back-to-back set and will be making his seventh-straight start on Saturday — after having apparently opted out of the All-Star Game a couple of weeks ago because he was dealing with some sort of issue.
Something to watch...
The Flames' only injury at the moment is to depth forward Tyler Pitlick, who's out with an undisclosed ailment. Here's how their lines are expected to roll against Vancouver:
As he skates toward unrestricted free agency at the end of this season, Johnny Gaudreau is having the best season of his career, tied for eighth overall in NHL scoring with 51 points in 39 games. And while he was held off the scoresheet in St. Louis on Thursday, he had 12 points in Calgary's four games prior to that.
As for the Canucks — Poolman and Tanner Pearson (Covid protocol) are the only regulars who are expected to be absent on Saturday night. The Canucks are riding high after a rare win in Winnipeg on Thursday, as J.T. Miller recorded his second-career hat trick and Connor Hellebuyck got lit up for five goals in the Canucks' 5-1 victory.
That win moved the Canucks back to .500 with 43 points, two points ahead of the Jets in the Western Conference, and just three back of the Flames (and Stars, and Sharks). The Oilers are also still in that mix, at 44 points.
Dallas is idle on Saturday after a 5-0 home loss to Washington on Friday night. San Jose is in Florida on Saturday and the Jets are in St. Louis, both really tough barns. And the Oilers are visiting Montreal, where the Canadiens have been playing much better of late but the wins have still been few and far between.
Games in hand still work against the Canucks — San Jose is the only other team in this group that has played as many games as Vancouver. But we've also seen time and time again that converting games-in-hand into points can sometimes be easier said than done. This is when regulation-vs-overtime losses become more and more important — and we have not yet reached the point in the schedule where we go heavily into in-conference matchups. February will be much more random than usual this year.
By picking up four of a possible six points during the Spencer Martin era, and with a respectable 4-4-2 record over their 10 games since New Year's under some pretty difficult circumstances, the Canucks are hanging in there.
A regulation win on Saturday night would get them within one point of the Flames. And with a tired home team combined with the return of rested Demko and Horvat, I don't hate Vancouver's chances.
Should be a good one. Enjoy the game!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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