GAME DAY PREVIEW: Game Four- Canucks @ Calgary

VANCOUVER CANUCKS (1-2-0) vs CALGARY FLAMES (1-0-1))

SCOTIABANK SADDLEDOME- CALGARY, AB

6:00PM PST

TV: SPORTSNET PACIFIC, SN1. RADIO: SPORTSNET 650

OPPOSING BLOG: MATCHSTICKS & GASOLINE

It was a game that anyone familiar with this team and their wretched history saw coming a mile away. Sure, one could hope that they were going to go into Calgary, pump 5 past Markstrom and a good time would be had by all. Instead, an embarrassing shutout loss to the team that took 1/6th of the Canucks 2019-20 roster was what we were served. On the bright side, at least Christopher Tanev and Josh Leivo didn’t score to make it worse.

Another thing that can make tonight’s contest better? The return of J.T. Miller to the Canucks lineup. Having cleared COVID-19 protocols after a potential exposure through Jordie Benn, he rejoined his teammates in Calgary, took part in this morning’s skate and is a go for tonight. Maybe this will be just what Elias Pettersson needs to get going, after just one assist in 3 games so far. Not that anyone else besides Quinn Hughes, Brock Boeser and Bo Horvat have more than one point, but getting Petey going is a must for this team to be successful.

LINEUPS

Courtesy of nhl.com here’s what we should see from these teams tonight:

Canucks projected lineup

J.T. Miller — Elias Pettersson — Brock Boeser

Tanner Pearson — Bo Horvat — Nils Hoglander

Antoine Roussel — Adam Gaudette — Jake Virtanen

Tyler Motte — Jay Beagle — Brandon Sutter

Alexander Edler — Nate Schmidt

Quinn Hughes — Travis Hamonic

Olli Juolevi — Tyler Myers

Braden Holtby

Thatcher Demko

Scratched: Loui Eriksson, Jalen Chatfield, Zack MacEwen

Injured: Jayce Hawryluk (undisclosed), Micheal Ferland (head)

COVID-19 protocol: Jordie Benn

Flames projected lineup

Matthew Tkachuk — Elias Lindholm — Dillon Dube

Johnny Gaudreau — Sean Monahan — Josh Leivo

Sam Bennett — Mikael Backlund — Andrew Mangiapane

Milan Lucic — Derek Ryan — Dominik Simon

Mark Giordano — Rasmus Andersson

Noah Hanifin — Christopher Tanev

Juuso Valimaki — Nikita Nesterov

Jacob Markstrom

David Rittich

Scratched: Joakim Nordstrom

Injured: None

Looks like they’re going back and forth with an even split to start the season, and Demko gets the crease tonight. Calgary will go with Markstrom again tonight, giving the Canucks an opportunity for some payback and a chance to head home for a 3 game stint against the Montreal Canadiens with a .500 record.

GAME DAY CHATTER

GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN

Spanish Thrashers ANGELUS APATRIDA are back with a self titled album coming out Feb 5th on Century Media Records, and they’ve released a new video for the track ‘Indoctrinate’. Might have to dig a little deeper on this one, I definitely like what I hear so far.

Enjoy the game, folks. Go Canucks Go!