Saturday, February 03, 2007Pengrowth SaddleDome
- The Flames play host to the Vancouver Canucks tonight, the only team to have beaten them at the Saddledome in the last 21 home games...
- Vancouver is coming off a 5-3 home victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday night and came into town early on Friday, so they should be well rested...
- The Flames are coming off a 6-2 home victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets last night, in a game that saw the return of Jarome Iginla and a fantastic special teams performance, which has been sorely lacking thus far this season...
- The two teams are tied for first in the tight Northwest division, but Vancouver leads the season series 4-2 (with one of those wins in overtime). Calgary also holds a game in hand over Vancouver, but that will not come into play tonight, as a loss by either team gives up valuable ground in the division...
- Both teams have all-star goaltenders in net, with Vancouver's Roberto Luongo coming off a 3 Stars selection for January, and Calgary obviously having defending Vezina and Jennings trophy winner Miikka Kiprusoff...
- The lineup for the Flames is expected to be the same from the game last night, although I'm still curious as to why Kiprusoff is getting starts in back-to-back games...
- The hot hands for the Canucks right now are Marcus Naslund (1-4-5 +2 in the last 3 games) and Brendan Morrison (1-5-6 -2 in the last 5 games)...
- For the Flames, Kristian Huselius is currently on an 11 game point streak (7-10-17 +9 over that stretch) and Alex Tanguay has also been on fire lately (1-5-6 +3 in the last 3 games)...
Obviously this is a huge game for both teams, so expect them to both come out swinging. Given the quality of the goaltending, I'm expecting a one goal game (hopefully in regulation), and a win for the Flames. I think with the return of both Iginla and Craig Conroy to the Calgary lineup, the have a little more jump right now. My prediction is a 3-2 win for the Flames, with goals by Iginla, Dion Phaneuf, and Daymond Langkow for the home squad, Daniel Sedin and Naslund for the ocean going spawns of satan...
Unfortunately, I will be out on the town tonight, so I won't actually be able to watch the game live, but I will record it on my PVR (the better to not have to sit through commercials with), and watch it either when I get home or early tomorrow...
Oh, and I'm also expecting tonight's game to be especially chippy (as most intense games are), so I think Mick McGeough will keep up his 'stellar' reputation of a steady parade to the penalty box in an effort to keep himself in the spotlight. I actually tried to link to McGeough's profile on the NHL Officials site, but apparently its copyrighted and it won't let me...
I would also expect a fight in the game tonight, but I don't know who would be the fighter for the Canucks... Kevin Bieksa? Alex Burrows?
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