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An off day for the Calgary Flames young stars gave them the chance to regroup after suffering a 6-3 loss at the hands of the Edmonton Oilers. Today they face the host Vancouver Canucks in a battle of the two 1-1 teams: both beating the Winnipeg Jets, but both falling to McDavids or lack thereof.
Earlier, the Flames defeated the Jets 3-1 off the backs of a breakout Ryan Lomberg, star Sam Bennett, and incredible athleticism by Jon Gillies; then, despite taking an early lead against the Oilers, they ultimately fell 6-3, surrendering two empty net goals en route to defeat (but not before showing off some impressive talents in the likes of Bill Arnold and Andrew Mangiapane first).
Ryan Culkin was hurt in the second game, and will be out 6-8 weeks with a shoulder injury. It's a hard blow for the young defenceman, who has just been beginning to break out after playing his first professional season in the 2014-15 year. Oliver Kylington, however, who was injured in the first game and held out for precautionary reasons, appears to officially be back, and in the lineup tonight.
The host Canucks, meanwhile, first fell to the Oilers 8-2. Connor McDavid had a goal, an assist, and took a heavy hit as former friend and Calgary Hitman Jake Virtanen laid him out. Virtanen also did lots of other truculent stuff. Vancouver did regroup against the Jets, defeating them 4-1, and apparently had some good corsiing.
So we've got a team that had a worse loss to the Oilers but a slightly better win over the Jets against the Flames' stars - and this is the final game for pride, and to come away with a record above .500 (while dooming the loser to, uh, less than that).
Here's your projected lineup:
| Left Wing | Center | Right Wing | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andrew Mangiapane | Bill Arnold | Emile Poirier | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mason Marchment | Pavel Kaurnakhov | Morgan Klimchuk | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bryce Van Brabant | Tyson Baillie | Austin Carroll | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Julien Proulx | Taylor Burke | Hunter Smith | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Left Defence | Right Defense | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Oliver Kylington | Kenney Morrison | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Patrick Sieloff | Riley Bruce | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jason Bell | Eric Roy | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Goalies | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jon Gillies | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nick Schneider | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
No Sam Bennett. Gillies is expected to play the first two periods, while Schneider should take over for the third.
If there are still some players you aren't familiar with, read about them here.
Puck drop is at 4:30 p.m. MT. You can watch the game online via the Flames site, app, or YouTube channel!