[GDT] Flames @ Canucks, 6:00 MST. Sportsnet West, Fan 960

[Puppet Guy]

Forget last night and move on to Vancouver. The Flames hope the dead-on-arrival power play can find some sort of jolt and come to life a la Frankenstein's creature tonight against the Canucks.

There's a real dearth of info this early in the morning for some reason, so we're just skipping ahead to the lineups, which are unconfirmed and subject to obliteration (www.dailyfaceoff.com)

FLAMES

Gaudreau - Monahan - Ferland
Tkachuk - Backlund - Frolik
Bennett - Jankowski - Hathaway
Brouwer - Stajan - Jagr

Giordano - Hamilton
Brodie - Hamonic
Kulak - Stone

Rittich (unconfirmed)

CANUCKS

D Sedin - H Sedin - Vanek
Eriksson - Gagner - Boeser
Goldobin - Burmistrov - Virtanen
Granlund - Dowd - Gaunce

Edler - Pouliot
Hutton - Stetcher
Del Zotto - Biega

Markstrom (unconfirmed)

Those Canucks have a lot of injuries. I wonder what demented creature put those elves on the injury shelf?

Spoiler!

Go Flames

[Tailgator]

Bold prediction: the power play won’t score and the Flames lose. Goofy platitudes and allusions to moral victories from the horrible coaching staff ensue...

[ForeverFlameFan]

Watch out for Boeser. He’s the only threat on the Canucks imo.

[bigrangy]

Go Flams!

Win game!

[Machiavelli]

Leftwinglock has Rittich starting, as per this tweet: https://twitter.com/Fan960Steinberg/...46368615399424

[Insufficient Funds]

I hope the team plays well in front of Rittich again. If he can pull out a win then I'd like to seem him start a couple in a row. There isn't going to be a trade or coach firing before the break, so it's a small way to shake up the team. Smith could use the rest I think.

[The Professor]

Gfg!

[ForeverFlameFan]

The team tends to play better under Rittich. Wish they did the same with Smith, I think they rely on him too much.

[2ArmBands]

Sad to say but I'm actually hoping we get blown out. Anything that will expedite some change behind the bench is all I'm hoping for. However, I suspect the team will do "just enough" to maintain status quo and continue to hang around playing the same old uninspired mediocare hockey.

[taco.vidal]

Originally Posted by Tailgator

Bold prediction: the power play won’t score and the Flames lose. Goofy platitudes and allusions to moral victories from the horrible coaching staff ensue...

If its a loss, which I think it will be, I hope its real ugly and its clear the coaching is holding back the team. Hopefully that gets management ready to pull the trigger on canning the GlueGun after the holidays.

[DJones]

Should be a gift wrapped game.

I have zero confidence they can score more than 2 though

[Southside]

Just 1 point in our last 3. Losing ground in the division. It's important to get some wins in before the Christmas break. It has to start tonight because after that it's the Blues and Habs at home where we're always too welcoming to visitors.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

They can't possibly lose this. From their starting roster, the Canucks are missing

Dorsett
Horvat
Baertschi
Sutter
Tanev
Gudbranson

That's 2/3 of their top line and half of their top four D... and it was a bad team even when healthy.

[mrdonkey]

Powerplay continues to stink, Rittich looks good but lets in a weird one, team continues to struggle transitioning between offense and defense. Could see this one going either way, but my gut says 2-1 Flames and Goofus and crew survive another day.

If they lose, lots of talk about how the team is outplaying their opponents but getting unlucky. The wins will come, just need more finish, etc etc. Rinse and repeat. Who cares anymore.

[colbym72]

Originally Posted by mrdonkey

Powerplay continues to stink, Rittich looks good but lets in a weird one, team continues to struggle transitioning between offense and defense. Could see this one going either way, but my gut says 2-1 Flames and Goofus and crew survive another day.

If they lose, lots of talk about how the team is outplaying their opponents but getting unlucky. The wins will come, just need more finish, etc etc. Rinse and repeat. Who cares anymore.

I care and always will

[Beninho]

Bout to jump on the ferry from Victoria to watch this one live. Haven't been able to see the Flames play since 2012 so you can say I'm pretty pumped! I know the results haven't quite been there lately but this team is getting chances, just the brutal PP and some bad luck has been costing this team. Go Flames Go!

[OldSam]

Second game in less than 24 hours and third in four days. I am a little worried but, as always, Go Flams!

[Racki]

I'm pretty concerned that they come out flat tonight. The truth is they played well yesterday in a relatively physical, hard fought battle.

Second night of a back to back versus a mediocre team missing several of their above mediocre players. This could be one that the Flames fail to get up for I suspect.

[flambers]

Flames win this one 5-2, score two on the powerplay.....

[direwolf]

Scoring more than 0 goals would be helpful tonight. Just need to get the 2 points. I don't care how.