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Vancouver Canucks' preseason kicks off with a pair of games vs. the Flames

September 16, 2019, 2:32 PM ET [422 Comments]
Carol Schram
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
It's game day!

Five months and 10 days after the Vancouver Canucks finished out the 2018-19 regular season with a 3-2 overtime loss to the eventual Stanley Cup Champion St. Louis Blues, the boys are back with a double dose of action in split-squad games tonight against the Calgary Flames.

After Max Pacioretty's hat trick fuelled a 6-2 home win for Vegas over the Arizona Coyotes to kick off the NHL's preseason schedule on Sunday, there are 11 games on tap for Monday — kicking off with the first game of a split-squad doubleheader between the Panthers and Predators kicking off at 1:30 p.m. PT in Nashville.

The Canucks' game in Calgary kicks off at 6 p.m. PT and will be streamed on Canucks.com. With both teams aiming to put on a bit of a show for their home fans, here's how the lineups for both teams will shake down at the Saddledome:



The Canucks have sent the smallest-possible lineup to Calgary: 12 forwards, six defensemen and two goalies. Here's how the lines are expected to shake out.



On the blue line, Jett Woo should get some love from Calgary fans as he makes an appearance in the Saddledome in Canucks colours before eventually settling in with the WHL Calgary Hitmen. Interesting to see Troy Stecher on this list without his presumptive future D partner Jordie Benn, who will almost certainly be on the roster for the game in Victoria.

Here's a look at the Flames' lines. This is a pretty NHL-ready crew — and we'll have the debuts of former Oilers Milan Lucic and Cam Talbot in their new Calgary uniforms.



The game in Victoria starts an hour later, at 7 p.m., with TV coverage on Sportsnet Pacific and Sportsnet One, and radio on Sportsnet 650.

On Tuesday, the team will return to Rogers Arena to host the Edmonton Oilers. Travis Green didn't offer many hints about his lineup decisions after the main groups skated in Victoria on Sunday. He said that with 60 guys in camp, pretty much everyone would get a chance to play at least once and a few guys would play back-to-back on Monday and Tuesday.

Here's the lineup for the game in Victoria.



A couple of those lines do look familiar from the weekend: Eriksson-Gaudette-Leivo were a thing, as were Goldy-Horvat-Miller, but all the defense pairings are new.

After three days of Pettersson magic through camp, he and Micheal Ferland get a night off on Monday. Other established players who aren't expected to suit up include Brandon Sutter, Tanner Pearson, Quinn Hughes, Tyler Myers, Jacob Markstrom and Thatcher Demko.

There has been plenty of curiosity among the regulars here about Kole Lind, who will get a look in the Victoria group on Monday night. So will the college defensemen Brogan Rafferty and Josh Teves; Rafferty has been getting some plaudits for his work so far.

Here's who the Flames are sending to Victoria:



On Sunday, the intensity at Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre dropped off considerably after the scrimmage, where Team White came back from a 2-0 deficit to beat Team Blue 3-2 in a shootout. Elias Pettersson broke out his Forsberg move on Jake Kielly to tally the winner.



Petey also set up the tying goal with a sweet flip pass to set up a breakaway for Micheal Ferland. That ended the regulation scoring after earlier tallies from Adam Gaudette, Guillaume Brisebois and Ashton Sautner. Here are all the scoring highlights:



Here's the other clip that has fans buzzing. Even in a scrimmage, Ferland is making it clear that he understands his role as Petey's protector.



Green said he thought the overall quality of Sunday's scrimmage was better, because the players weren't quite as tired. While players can no longer show up at camp and play their way into shape, Green said last week that he group as a whole arrived with the highest overall level of conditioning that he'd seen in his tenure in Vancouver so far, and he has been pushing the pace during his on-ice sessions.

Tim Schaller admitted to TSN1040's Jeff Paterson over the weekend that Travis' expectations caught him offguard a year ago. That may have contributed to what was largely an ineffective season for him.

“I worked maybe twice as hard this summer knowing that camp was a little tougher than what I had been used to in the past,” Schaller told Paterson. “So I worked on conditioning a lot. If I can come out with an edge to my game and with a little more confidence because I did so much work this summer, I’m in a really good mindset right now and if I go out there work hard, play my game I think anything will be better than last year.”

I thought Schaller did show decent jump in the weekend scrimmages, after having been almost invisible in preseason last year.

J.T. Miller has been keeping up just fine, but is echoing the sentiment.



Compared to junior camps, rookies Jett Woo and Carson Focht also said they noticed a big difference, and that it has been eye-opening for them to see just how hard the pros work.

We'll soon see how that hard work stacks up against the Flames. Preseason results may not mean anything, but Vancouver's 1-6-0 record and lack of scoring punch last year raised some red flags.

With a much more optimistic vibe around the team through camp, it'd be nice if the Canucks could offer fans more hope during these coming weeks before the 50th Anniversary Season officially begins.

Enjoy the games!
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