Thank goodness it’s preseason. There have not been very many flashes of brilliance yet for the blue and green but when you don’t ice a full lineup there can be a lot of questions. The Flames get their first official look at more than just the prospects tonight. Will the Canucks young guns do some serious hockeying or are we just going through the motions until October?
BROADCAST INFO
TV: Sportsnet ONE
Radio: TSN 1040
Puck Drop: 6 PM pacific (sorry, SkyTrain crowd)
LINEUPS
Up front Brendan Gaunce, Alex Grenier and Ronalds Kenins are all pushing for a spot on the big club. Calgary is a good test for these guys if given the opportunity. I actually think this game gets physical. Maybe that’s not a stretch but with Calgary it’s always personal. The players trying to earn a spot need to learn that.
We’re expecting the forward lines to look something like this:
Sven Baertschi – Brandon Sutter – Ronalds Kenins
Hunter Shinkaruk – Blair Jones – Jake Virtanen
Brandon Prust – Linden Vey – Derek Dorsett
Brendan Gaunce – Wacey Hamilton – Carter Bancks
No projection of the defensive pairings, but Luca Sbisa, Matt Bartkowski, Yannick Weber, Frank Corrado, Andrey Pedan, and Tayor Fedun will lace up the skates. Jacob Markstrom and the recently waived Richard Bachman are in goal.
Calgary, on the other hand, appears to be in mid-season form, at least as far as drawing up a roster:
Johnny Gaudreau – Sean Monahan – Jiri Hudler
Austin Carrol – Lance Bouma – Michael Frolik
Kenny Agostino – Bill Arnold – Garnet Hathaway
Blair Riley – Paul Byron – Morgan Klimchuk
Mark Giordano – Dougie Hamilton
Kris Russell – Dennis Wideman
Patrick Sieloff – Deryk Engelland
Jonas Hiller
So far going into this game, the Flames have nothing to prove against the Canucks. As far as they’re concerned the tables are turning and its Vancouver’s turn to catch up. Seeing Dougie Hamilton in a Flames uni will be weird. Johnny Hockey, Boring Sean Monahan and el capitan Mark Giordano should see some legit action so we may get a bit of a game.
REASONS TO WATCH THIS PRESEASON GAME
- It may sound like a broken record but Jake Virtanen playing at the Saddledome may set a spark to the young man and give us something to talk about Saturday morning.
- Fairly obvious but Calgary/Vancouver is always fun. We hate them, they hate us, wash, rinse, repeat. It will never get old and at some point the Canucks may want to play a team that pisses them off.
- The goalies doing goalie things. We had Roberto Luongo and in case you forgot, we reemed on that guy pretty hard at this time of year too! Let’s chill.
- Micheal Ferland hasn’t formally met Gaunce or Virtanen or Grenier. He still won’t tonight. The Flames are probably scared.
- No Chris Higgins for what, 6 weeks? The race for the role of workhorse, gritty winger #2 will officially take off at 6 PM. It always seems to happen when we need someone to step up, who’s it gonna be? Who is going to sports the hardest tonight?
- 3 on 3 OT, maybe we get there, maybe we don’t. Let’s score a goal this time, let’s do that shall we?
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING
I wanna believe he was wearing a Bertuzzi jersey. That would be perfect!
MY TAKE
The Canucks have to be physical tonight, they have to just sports the Flames just a ton. Losing to the Flames is one thing but losing a playoff series is never a good feeling. Even though it’s preseason, somehow I hope John Tortorella gets to call one shift this evening. Maybe we’re back to moral victories for the time being, I dunno. Just win Canucks, just win. 3-1 good guys.