Calgary Flames vs Vancouver Canucks [Game 3]

The Calgary Flames look to take home a victory in their third game of the season after letting one slip away against the Edmonton Oilers yesterday. The puck is slated to drop at 7:00 PM PST in Vancouver against the Vancouver Canucks, but of course it’s the season opener for Vancouver so really we can chalk another half an hour to an hour before that actually happens. The Flames are still looking for their first victory after going 0-2 against Edmonton.

Brian Elliott played yesterday, so Chad Johnson gets the start against Vancouver in what will be his first start as a Flame. He’ll square off against Ryan Miller. Johnson actually has a higher five-on-five save percentage than Miller, but it’s rather close to even – .925 for Johnson and .9223 for Miller.

Dennis Wideman has been relegated to the bench after looking abhorrently slow over the first few games. Brett Kulak draws in to take his spot on the third pairing. It would be very hard to look worse than Wideman has over the past two games and playing the slow footed Wideman in a back to back would be a horrid idea. Wideman was pretty terrible last year as well, so hopefully Kulak can find a way to stick in the lineup.

The rest of the lineup looks very much the same as it did last night during the first period. Hopefully they come out on fire again and Greg Gulutzan doesn’t mess with the lineups. The forward corps looks almost as ideal as it possible can and the only defenseman playing offhanded is T.J. Brodie who prefers it anyway. Engelland switches back to the right side where he generally looks more comfortable and now that he’s partnered with an individual who has some semblance of skating ability he should be able to look a bit better.

by Les Mavus