In 1815, French general Napoleon Bonaparte famously met his military demise with a crucial defeat in the Battle of Waterloo. The defeat marked the end of his ambitions to conquer Europe. The Calgary Flames (27-22-6, 60 points) have their season teetering on a similarly precarious cliff as they head off on a crucial four game western swing. It begins tonight against the Vancouver Canucks (30-20-5, 65 points), the Pacific Division’s top team.
The puck drops just after 8 p.m. MT on CBC and Sportsnet 960 The Fan.
For a view from the other side, check out our colleagues at Canucks Army!

The Flames

Projected lines, via Daily Faceoff:
Mangiapane – Backlund – Tkachuk
Gaudreau – Monahan – Lindholm
Lucic – Ryan – Dube
Rieder – Jankowski – Bennett
Brodie – Hamonic
Hanifin – Andersson
Kylington – Stone
David Rittich starts for the Flames, backed up by Cam Talbot. Today’s scratches are Zac Rinaldo, Buddy Robinson and Brandon Davidson.
The Flames have lost three games in a row and won just once since the All-Star Break. They’ve been out-scored 15-9 at five on five and 21-13 overall. Quite simply, they need to fix this and fast. Interim head coach Geoff Ward unveiled his one man show after Thursday’s game seemingly titled “We’re In Trouble,” in which he discussed the team’s lack of attention to detail (“the little things”), their inconsistency, and his seeming bewilderment at how a talented, veteran team can be the way they are this season. Will the team respond to this sermon, or will it just more of the same?
The Flames are sort of technically in a playoff spot due to the points percentage tiebreaker; they’re one point back of Arizona but have a game in hand. (They’re in the second wildcard on points, but Nashville has games in hand.) They probably need to come back from their road trip with five or six points to get back into the thick of the Pacific playoff picture.

The Canucks

Projected lines, via Daily Faceoff:
Pearson – Horvat – Sutter
Miller – Pettersson – Boeser
Roussel – Gaudette – Virtanen
Schaller – Beagle – Eriksson
Edler – Stecher
Hughes – Tanev
Benn – Myers
Jacob Markstrom starts for the Canucks, backed up by Thatcher Demko. Their healthy extras are Zack MacEwen, Justin Bailey and Guillaume Brisebois. Elias Pettersson returns after missing a game with a lower body injury.
So, uh, the Canucks are pretty good. They’ve won 30 games, they sit atop the Pacific Division, and they’re a fast, young team full of players that seem to have a chip on their shoulder – being told you’re not supposed to be good yet for a whole summer tends to do that to a team. They’re ahead of schedule and playing with house money, and head coach Travis Green has them motivated and structured.
They’re deservedly being recognized as one of the top teams in the West. The Flames will have their hands full tonight.

The Numbers

Flames
Canucks
Wins
27
30
Points
60
65
Adjusted Corsi
49.7%
49.2%
Power Play
19.8%
23.2%
Penalty Kill
81.2%
83.9%

Injury Report

The Flames are without D Juuso Valimaki (ACL surgery) and D Mark Giordano (hamstring).
The Canucks are missing F Tyler Graovac (lower body), F Micheal Ferland (upper body), F Josh Leivo (knee), F Tyler Motte (shoulder), F Elias Pettersson (lower body) and D Oscar Fantenberg (upper body).

When Last We Met

This is the third of four meetings between these old rivals this season. The Flames won 3-0 in Calgary in October but lost 5-2 in Calgary in December. Their season series will close out in late March at Rogers Arena.

Know Thy Enemy

Here are some key Twitter peeps to follow for tonight: