GAME DAY PREVIEW/THREAD: Canucks @ Calgary- Oct 1, 2021

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

SCOTIABANK SADDLEDOME- CALGARY, AB

6:00PM PST

TV: SPORTSNET ONE RADIO: SPORTSNET 650

OPPOSING BLOG: MATCHSTICKS & GASOLINE

The Canucks look to move their preseason record (and yes, we know it means absolutely nothing, so stop typing out your comment!) to 2-1-0 as they prepare to take on the so-far winless Calgary Flames. And while they won’t be in the lineup tonight (and probably not Sunday afternoon against the Jets for that matter), the news of the Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes contract signings (soon to be made official) might just have an impact on tonight’s outcome. I wouldn’t at all be surprised to see the team fired up to know these two are going to be in the lineup soon.

In the meantime, there’s still hockey to play, and there’s the whole issue with Travis Hamonic and whether he will be taking the NHL’s opt-out clause by Midnight Eastern time tonight. The Canucks still have moves to make before October 13th, but with the hardest part of that work out of the way, we can likely enjoy a relatively stress-free preseason the rest of the way.

Who are we kidding? It’s the Canucks. They don’t do stress-free.

LINEUPS

This game could be pretty important for a few of the guys in the lineup tonight. Guys like Nic Petan, Matthew Highmore, Jonah Gadjovich, William Lockwood and Brad Hunt are all looking to lock down spots on the roster once the regular season arrives, not to mention Olli Juolevi trying to salvage a spot that should have rightly been his.

Flames lineup courtesy calgaryflames.com

Johnny Gaudreau - Brad Richardson - Andrew Mangiapane

Matthew Tkachuk - Elias Lindholm - Blake Coleman

Dillon Dube - Mikael Backlund - Brett Ritchie

Justin Kirkland - Byron Froese - Walker Duehr

Oliver Kylington - Christopher Tanev

Nikita Zadorov - Rasmus Andersson

Connor Mackey - Erik Gudbranson

Jacob Markstrom

Dustin Wolf

As you can see, this is a far better roster than the one the Flames trotted out against the Canucks Monday night in Abbotsford, and as such it shouldn’t come as a shock that the home team might actually snap their losing streak in this one. Plenty of ex-Canucks in the lineup tonight for the Flames, including our old pal Erik Gudbranson. Gonna be fun watching Miller, Hoglander and Podkolzin turnstile him if they get the chance.

GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN

Hardcore legends INTEGRITY covering Ozzy Osbourne? Gimme! Here’s their version of ‘Bark At The Moon’. Enjoy the game, folks! Go Canucks Go!