Prospect FGD: One More Against Vancouver (4:30pm MT)

The Calgary Flames finish off their three-game sojourn to Penticton, British Columbia and the Young Stars Classic tournament later today. After decent starts in each of their first two games, the Flames have seen diverging results – a 3-1 win over Winnipeg and a 6-3 loss to the Edmonton Oilers (sans Connor McDavid).

But the Flames can go home happy with a victory today against the tournament’s hosts, the Vancouver Canucks. Puck drop is around 4:30pm MT and you can stream the game on the Flames website.

It’s good news, bad news for the Flames. The bad news is that Ryan Culkin is hurt. The good news is that nobody else has significant injuries, even with some scares involving Morgan Klimchuk, Oliver Kylington and Patrick Sieloff.

Here are the projected lines for today’s contest, which includes all three players that had previous injury scares!

Surprisingly, several players are getting into their third games, including the entire top line. I thought they’d rotate bodies in and out, but it seems like the coaching staff wants to get longer looks at players. Towering 2015 pick Riley Bruce gets his first look of camp, as does former unsigned draft pick Eric Roy. I’m liking that top pairing and top line, but it gets mighty thin really fast after those groups.

With Gillies getting the start here, I’d surmise that we’ll see Mason McDonald on Wednesday against the University of Calgary Dinos at Winsport.

No real line-up news for the other side, who played yesterday. Reportedly Jackson Whistle and Clay Witt will split goaltending duties, but beyond that, your guess is as good as mine.

Most likely detailed line breakdowns will trickle onto Twitter just before the game starts, for those who really want to know more about Canucks prospects. By all accounts, Jordan Subban has been superb on their blueline.

As Meat Loaf once eloquently put it: two out of three ain’t bad. With a good effort today, the Flames can polish off a fairly solid tournament with two wins in three games.

And they closed out the 2014-15 campaign of the Canucks with a crushing loss, so what better way to help them kick off their 2015-16 season can there be?