Pre-Season FGD: a rematch with the Canucks (7pm MT, SN One)
By Ryan Pike
2 years agoThe Calgary Flames hit the midway point of the 2021 pre-season calendar on Friday night when they host the Vancouver Canucks at the palatial Scotiabank Saddledome. The Flames are looking for their first pre-season win, as well as a measure of revenge against Vancouver for their previous defeat.
The puck drops just after 7 p.m. MT and you can catch the game on TV on Sportsnet One and on the radio on Sportsnet 960 The Fan! It’s the only televised game of the pre-season!
The Flames
Here’s who’s left in camp after Thursday’s cuts, friends: 41 players, 38 of them healthy.
- Goaltenders [4]: Jacob Markstrom, Dan Vladar, Adam Werner and Dustin Wolf
- Defensemen [13]: Rasmus Andersson, Nick DeSimone, Kevin Gravel, Erik Gudbranson, Noah Hanifin, Johannes Kinnvall (inj.), Oliver Kylington, Connor Mackey, Michael Stone, Chris Tanev, Juuso Valimaki, Andy Welinski and Nikita Zadorov
- Forwards [24]: Mikael Backlund, Blake Coleman, Dillon Dube, Walker Duehr, Ryan Francis, Byron Froese, Johnny Gaudreau, Glenn Gawdin, Justin Kirkland, Trevor Lewis, Elias Lindholm, Milan Lucic, Andrew Mangiapane, Sean Monahan, Jakob Pelletier, Emilio Pettersen, Matthew Phillips, Tyler Pitlick (inj.), Martin Pospisil, Brad Richardson, Brett Ritchie, Adam Ruzicka, Matthew Tkachuk and Connor Zary (inj.)
Lines, via Pat Steinberg:
So far, healthy players that have yet to play in a pre-season game include Dustin Wolf, Noah Hanifin, Ryan Francis and Sean Monahan. Hanifin and Monahan are being eased in and probably appear later on during the pre-season as they get ramped up for the regular season.
It’s the first game in a stretch of three games in four nights – the Flames head to Kent, WA to face Seattle on Saturday and then hit up Edmonton on Monday night – and afterwards, likely more cuts.
The Canucks
Via the club, the travelling roster (no lines yet):
- Goalies Thatcher Demko, Arturs Silovs and Michael DiPietro
- Defensemen Luke Schenn, Jack Rathbone, Madison Bowey, Kyle Burroughs, Olli Juolevi, Tyler Myers and Brad Hunt
- Forwards Nic Petan, Conor Garland, J.T. Miller, Matthew Highmore, Jason Dickinson, Nils Hoglander, Phillip Di Giuseppe, Jonah Gadjovich, Sheldon Dries, William Lockwood, Zach MacEwen, Justin Dowling and Vasily Podkolzin
The big news in Canucksland is the returns of Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes, who have been hammering out new contracts and since they weren’t previously under contract, weren’t with the club for camp. (They could have attended, in theory, but there are weird insurance implications so typically RFAs waiting for new deals don’t skate with their NHL club.)
Players to watch
For the players in red, keep an eye on the blueline group. Oliver Kylington has put together two really nice games and now it’ll be interesting to see how the other leftie defenders respond. The other camp battles seem to be pretty cut-and-dried, but the defensive battle seems to be heating up.
Recent articles from Ryan Pike
