The Vancouver Canucks may not be playing postseason hockey this year, but they have the chance to help lower another club's chance of making them tonight (April 8).

The Canucks will be facing off against the Calgary Flames in what is a massive game for the latter. At the time of this writing, the Flames are currently tied with the Winnipeg Jets in points (89) for the final Wild Card spot in the Western Conference and have played one more game than them. With that, the Nashville Predators also have a game in hand on the Flames and only trail them by one point. Therefore, this is a must-win contest for the Flames, as any loss from here will hurt their playoff hopes.

Although a Canucks win would not impact their season, it would be nice to play spoilers against a division rival.

The Canucks are also looking to build off of their solid 3-0 win over the Chicago Blackhawks. Thatcher Demko put together a 33-save shutout, Akito Hirose recorded his first two NHL assists, and Vitali Kravtsov finally scored his first goal as a Canuck. With that, J.T. Miller also scored his 30th goal. Now, we will need to see what they can do against the Flames from here.

Friday's practice lines show Canucks could sport a much different lineup tonight.

Forwards

Line 1: Vitali Kravtsov, Elias Pettersson, Conor Garland
Line 2: Phil Di Giuseppe, J.T. Miller, Brock Boeser
Line 3: Dakota Joshua, Nils Aman, Jack Studnicka
Line 4: Andrei Kuzmenko/Aidan McDonough, Sheldon Dries, Anthony Beauvillier

Defensemen:

First Pairing: Quinn Hughes & Kyle Burroughs
Second Pairing: Akito Hirose & Tyler Myers
Third Pairing: Ethan Bear & Cole McWard

If the Canucks end up rolling with the lines they had at yesterday's practice, we will see some notable changes to their forward group. Kuzmenko and Beauvillier are two players I wouldn't have expected to see on the fourth line, while Kravtsov could see time on their top line after recording his first goal with Vancouver.

Nevertheless, we will need to wait and see what the Canucks end up doing with their lines tonight. More importantly, however, let's see if they can play spoilers against the Flames.

How do you think the Canucks will do tonight? Predict the score in the comments!

-MDR

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