Flames vying to claim their first three-game winning streak of the season against a suddenly sputtering Vancouver squad with three victories in eight outings
Nikita Zadorov is known for being vocal off and on the ice.
The Calgary Flames expect to hear plenty from him when Zadorov makes his Vancouver Canucks debut against his former team Saturday night at the Saddledome.
“We’re gonna chirp him, too,” Flames forward Jonathan Huberdeau said after Saturday’s morning skate. “He’s loud but he means well. The first time I think I met him, I thought, I don’t know if I can get along with him. Over time, he’s one of my closest friends.”
Zadorov was traded by Calgary a couple of nights ago, and his first clash in Canucks colours being against his former team is one of the storylines heading into the Hockey Night in Canada affair.
More important, though, is the matchup between a pair of rivals.
When the calendar flipped to November, the Flames were already being left for dead, but they open the December portion of the schedule at the NHL’s version of .500 and faring well against top clubs.
Having kicked off their pre-Christmas gauntlet of 15 games with a pair of wins over the Dallas Stars and a victory over the Vegas Golden Knights — with a loss to the Colorado Avalanche mixed in — the Flames (10-10-3) are looking for their first three-game winning streak of the season against a Canucks team that may be scuffling but at 15-8-1 are second in the Pacific Division.
“You want to measure yourself against the best and we’ve been able to beat some good teams. … Lately, it’s more about us,” forward Blake Coleman said. “We like the way we’ve been playing. We like the way different guys are stepping up night in and night out.”
Here’s a look at Calgary’s expected lineup:
Forwards:
Yegor Sharangovich-Elias Lindholm-Andrew Mangiapane
Jonathan Huberdeau-Mikael Backlund-Blake Coleman
Connor Zary-Nazem Kadri-Martin Pospisil
A.J. Greer-Adam Ruzicka-Dillon Dube
Extra: Walker Duehr.
Defence:
MacKenzie Weegar-Rasmus Andersson
Noah Hanifin-Chris Tanev
Denis Gilbert-Jordan Oesterle
Extra: Ilya Solovyov
Goal:
Jacob Markstrom
Dan Vladar
Markstrom has a career 11-3-2 record with two shutouts, a 2.41 goals-against average and .916 save percentage against Vancouver. Vladar has a 2-0-0 mark with 3.81GAA and .877 SvPct.
Here is the expected roster for Vancouver:
Forwards:
Ilya Mikheyev-Elias Pettersson-Andrei Kuzmenko
Phil DiGiuseppe-J.T. Miller-Brock Boeser
Dakota Joshua-Teddy Blueger-Conor Garland
Nils Hoglander-Nils Aman-Sam Lafferty
Defence:
Quinn Hughes-Filip Hronek
Ian Cole-Noah Juulsen
Nikita Zadorov-Tyler Myers
Goal:
Thatcher Demko
Casey DeSmith
Demko’s career numbers against Calgary are 5-5-3, 3.01, .905; DeSmith’s career marks against the Flames are 0-3-0, 3.65, .897.
ICE CHIPS: How’s this for a stat regarding the man-advantage?: Vancouver’s Brock Boeser has scored eight power-play goals, equal to the production of the whole Flames team. Nobody on the Flames has scored more than one PPG. As a team, the Canucks have scored 25 times on the advantage … Calgary’s power play is in a 1-for-34 slump over the past 12 games and been blanked on 17 consecutive chances … The Flames have put together an 8-3-2 run despite surrendering the first goal in 11 of those 13 games and trailing in 12 of them … Starting with Vancouver’s last visit to Calgary on Nov. 16 — a 5-2 Flames win — the Canucks record is 3-5-0.
