FGD 2: The home opener (8pm MT, CBC)

Photo credit:Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports

5 years ago

After a loss in their season opener, the Calgary Flames (0-1-0, 0 points) kick off the home part of the 2018-19 calendar against the Vancouver Canucks (1-0-0, 2 points) – the team they faced on Wednesday. Can the Flames bounce back and erase the memory of their iffy first game?

The puck drops at 8 p.m. MT on CBC and Sportsnet 960 The Fan. Dave Randorf and Louie DeBrusk have the call on the TV side tonight.

The Flames

Projected lines, via Daily Faceoff:

Gaudreau – Monahan – Lindholm
Tkachuk – Backlund – Czarnik
Dube – Ryan – Neal
Bennett – Jankowski – Frolik

Giordano – Brodie
Hanifin – Stone
Valimaki – Prout

Mike Smith starts in goal, backed up by David Rittich. Tonight’s healthy scratches are Rasmus Andersson, Anthony Peluso and Garnet Hathaway. The lineup changes are the insertion of Dalton Prout on the third pairing as part of a shuffle due to Travis Hamonic’s injury (Michael Stone is bumped up to the second pairing) and a swap of Austin Czarnik and Michael Frolik.

Don’t expect many changes to power play personnel, but hope to see some additional urgency on the man advantage after an 0-for-7 start to the season. Special teams will be the crux for this season for the Flames, so hopefully the power play can find the same oomph that the penalty kill had on opening night.

The Canucks

Projected lines, via Daily Faceoff:

Baertschi – Horvat – Boeser
Goldobin – Pettersson – Eriksson
Leipsic – Sutter – Motte
Granlund – Beagle – Virtanen

Edler – Tanev
Del Zotto – Stecher
Pouliot – Gudbranson

No changes for the Canucks from Wednesday evening. Jacob Markstrom starts for Vancouver, backed up by Anders Nilsson. The healthy scratches appear to be Alex Biega, Ben Hutton and Tim Schaller.

Elias Pettersson? He’s pretty good, and worth watching in all three zones if you’ve got a ticket to tonight’s game. He was easily Vancouver’s best player on Wednesday and a catalyst to much of their attack.