FGD 3: It’s Vancouver, again! (7pm MT, SN1)

Less than 48 hours after their previous meeting, the Calgary Flames (1-0-1, 3 points) are back in action… and they’re playing the Vancouver Canucks (1-2-0, 2 points), again! It’s the second of 10 meetings between these two clubs and the Canucks are hoping for a big bounce-back effort. Can the Flames head into a six day break on a winning note?

The puck drops just after 7 p.m. MT and you can catch the action on Sportsnet One or on Sportsnet 960 The Fan.

Projected lines, via Daily Faceoff:

Tkachuk – Lindholm – Dube
Gaudreau – Monahan – Leivo
Mangiapane – Backlund – Bennett
Lucic – Ryan – Simon

Giordano – Andersson
Hanifin – Tanev
Valimaki – Nesterov

Jacob Markstrom starts after making 32 saves on Saturday night. He’ll be backed up by David Rittich. The taxi squad is Louis Domingue, Connor Mackey, Oliver Kylington, Zac Rinaldo, Derek Ryan and Buddy Robinson, though Ryan is expected to be activated for the game. Nordstrom is the odd man out once again. No lineup changes from the team that won 3-0 last time out.

The Flames have scored six goals thus far: four of them are via their power play, with three of them coming from their first unit (Tkachuk, Gaudreau, Monahan, Lindholm and Andersson). Sure, it’d be good if they could produce more at even strength, but their special teams success is giving them some time to figure their five-on-five offensive execution out.

After tonight’s game, the Flames don’t play another game until Sunday afternoon against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Projected lines, via Daily Faceoff:

Pearson – Horvat – Miller
Boeser – Pettersson – Hoglander
Roussel – Gaudette – Virtanen
Motte – Beagle – Sutter

Edler – Schmidt
Hughes – Hamonic
Juolevi – Myers

After Braden Holtby took the loss on Saturday, it sounds like Thatcher Demko starts in net. J.T. Miller makes his 2020-21 season debut, which shuffles Vancouver’s top nine a bit. Zack McEwen, Jalen Chatfield and Justin Bailey are their extra active skaters, while their taxi squad is Michael DiPietro, Jack Rathbone, Guillaume Brisebois, Loui Eriksson, Marc Michaelis and Brogan Rafferty.

The Canucks have played quite a bit of hockey already, but they’re still trying to find their legs. They won their first outing against the Oilers, but have lost back to back games and didn’t look great in either loss. Miller’s return will help, but the Canucks need to find their structure and their swagger or else it could be a very long season for them.

If you peruse most standings projections, it becomes apparent that 65 points probably gets you into the playoffs. That’s a 32-23-1 record, or thereabouts, or a .580 points percentage.

The Flames have a 1-0-1 record, three points, and a .750 points percentage. They need 62 more points to punch their ticket to the post-season.

The Flames are healthy.

The Canucks are without Micheal Ferland and Jayce Hawryluk due to injury. Jordie Benn is unavailable due to COVID-19 protocols.

These teams played on Saturday. The Flames won 3-0. Jacob Markstrom made a bunch of saves.

Your recommended Twitter follows for tonight’s contest: