VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- If you handed Ben Street a team of Hollywood’s top screenwriters, he still can’t imagine coming up with a better script for his NHL debut than what will play out Saturday night.

Called up from the American Hockey League by the Calgary Flames the day before, Street will play his first NHL game in his hometown against the Vancouver Canucks, in front of family, friends and his fiancé, while the rest of the Street clan watches into the wee hours back in Newfoundland on "Hockey Night in Canada."

It’s hard to imagine a better way to celebrate Hockey Day in Canada.

"I don’t know what else I would add into the story," Street said after Saturday’s morning skate. "On 'Hockey Night in Canada' where you grew up, I don’t think there’s anything I can add to it at this point."

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- The Calgary Flames are a lot better equipped to handle a recent run of injuries to key players than they would have been when they visited the Vancouver Canucks two-and-a-half weeks ago.

Back then, everyone was still trying to figure out where to go in the new system installed by new coach Bob Hartley.

Now the incumbents can at least tell the new guys where to go.

"Now there are 17 guys that know the system, and we bring in new guys and they can just follow the lead and other guys will be able to even tell them on the ice, 'Hey, this is where you are supposed to be,'" veteran Alex Tanguay said. "A couple weeks ago we had a couple guys on each line that didn’t know where they should be."

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Vancouver Canucks goaltender Cory Schneider will get a chance to build a little momentum Saturday night when he makes his second-straight start playing host to the Calgary Flames.

Schneider, who came into the season as the new No. 1 after taking over from Roberto Luongo early in the 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs, watched Luongo start – and excel in – four straight games before making 22 saves Thursday in a 4-1 win at the Minnesota Wild.

"I've always liked to get in a rhythm and tonight is another opportunity to do that," said Schneider, who went 10 days between starts. "I don't change anything regardless of who I am playing, or how long it's been, it all stays the same. I think that's part of staying consistent is doing the same things over and over again that give you success. If you get out of those patterns you see differences in your game."

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- The heated rivalry between the Vancouver Canucks and Chicago Blackhawks rarely needs any extra fuel to spark a fire, but there is plenty of it going into their first meeting of the season Friday.

It will be the first time the teams have played each other since March 21, when Chicago defenseman Duncan Keith hit Canucks forward Daniel Sedin with an elbow to the head, earning a five-game suspension. Sedin sustained a concussion and missed almost a month, and in his absence the Canucks lost the first three games of their first-round Stanley Cup Playoff series to the Los Angeles Kings.

Sedin and Keith both downplayed the incident Friday morning.

"I don't get angry that much," Sedin said, while insisting several times a win was all that mattered Friday. "It was more disappointment, so that's the only feeling I have. From what I heard he is a great guy and I still believe he is a good guy, that's not going to change. I think when the rivalry gets that heated players maybe do things they shouldn't do, and that was probably the case."

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Here are the lineups the Chicago Blackhawks and Vancouver Canucks likely will use when they renew one of the NHL's best rivalries Friday at Rogers Arena:

CANUCKS

Daniel Sedin - Henrik Sedin - Zack Kassian

Chris Higgins - Alexandre Burrows - Jannik Hansen

Mason Raymond - Jordan Schroeder - Dale Weise

Manny Malhotra - Maxim Lapierre - Aaron Volpatti

Dan Hamhuis - Alexander Edler

Jason Garrison - Kevin Bieksa

Keith Ballard - Christopher Tanev

Roberto Luongo

Cory Schneider

Scratched: Andrew Ebbett, Andrew Alberts, Cam Barker

Injured: Ryan Kesler, David Booth

Weise missed practice Thursday with a stiff neck but said he felt good enough to play after taking part in the morning skate.

BLACKHAWKS

Brandon Saad - Jonathan Toews - Marian Hossa

Patrick Sharp - Dave Bolland - Patrick Kane

Bryan Bickell - Andrew Shaw - Viktor Stalberg

Brandon Bollig - Marcus Kruger - Michael Frolik

Duncan Keith - Brent Seabrook

Niklas Hjalmarsson - Johnny Oduya

Sheldon Brookbank - Nick Leddy

Corey Crawford

Ray Emery

Scratched: Jamal Mayers

Injured: Michal Rozsival, Daniel Carcillo

Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said backup goaltender Ray Emery will start Saturday in Calgary for just the second time this season. Quenneville wouldn't confirm whether Bollig or Mayers would play on the fourth line Friday, but Mayers stayed out for a hard skate long after his teammates left in the morning, as did Rozsival, who is close to coming back from a knee injury.

DENVER -- The Colorado Avalanche is shaking up its lines to try and shake an early funk – and a much longer skid against the Vancouver Canucks.

Coming off consecutive losses, winless in three road games, still missing captain Gabriel Landeskog to injury, and facing a team they haven't beaten in regulation in 17 tries, Colorado moved third-line center John Mitchell into the top-six as a left wing and inserted call-up Michael Sgarbossa to make his NHL debut in Mitchell's usual spot.

"Just shake it up a little bit and see what happens," coach Joe Sacco said. "With Gabe being out just thought I'd change it up a little bit."

Sacco didn't have an update on his captain and usual top-line left wing Landeskog, who returned from a big, high hit in San Jose on Saturday and finished the game, but did not dress in Edmonton on Monday night. He is still with the team and watched part of the Canucks morning skate Wednesday from the tunnel outside the Avalanche locker room, but did not take part in Colorado's skate an hour later.

"Same status," Sacco said of Landeskog. "Head/leg injury and no timetable as far as returning."

Without Landeskog, Sacco hopes Mitchell will add "a little more jam" to Stastny's line, something he noticed from the trio after making the switch in the third period of a 4-1 loss to the Oilers. The hope is that leads to more power play opportunities for the Avalanche, which is averaging three chances per game and giving up a little more than six.

"It's fair to say we need to do a better job of playing inside the dots, getting to the net more, making the opposition tug us down," said Sacco, who liked the way his team is playing five-on-five but has seen them give up seven power play goals the last two games.

"Our Achilles heel has been our penalty kill," Sacco said. "Even when we do a pretty good job of killing a penalty it seems to end up in the back of our net. No excuses, we have to be better in that area."

Here are the rest of the new Colorado lines as the Avalanche tries to end a 0-15-2 skid against the Canucks on Wednesday night:

Jamie McGinn – Matt Duchene – PA Parenteau

John Mitchell – Paul Stastny – David Jones

Chuck Kobasew – Michael Sgarbosa – Milan Hejduk

Cody McLeod – Mark Olver – Patrick Bordeleau

Erik Johnson - Ryan Wilson

Greg Zanon - Matt Hunwick

Ryan O'Byrne - Jan Hejda or Tyson Barrie

Semyon Varlamov

Jean-Sebastien Giguere

Scratched: Shane O'Brien and Tyson Barrie or Jan Hejda

Injured: Gabriel Landeskog, Steve Downie

Notes: Sacco said O'Brien, a former Canuck, would sit out for the fifth time in six games for sure, but as "still deciding" between Barrie or Hejda as his sixth defenseman.

The Vancouver Canucks only have one new defenseman playing regularly this season, but they've got two trying to make big adjustments.

Asking them to do so on the same pairing has been problematic early, so for now they have split up newcomer Jason Garrison and Alexander Edler, who is being asked to play the less familiar right side after his old partner Sami Salo left for Tampa Bay as a free agent.

The change came shortly after both defensemen committed egregious turnovers that led to goals early in a 4-1 loss in San Jose on Sunday night. Garrison moved onto a pairing with Kevin Bieksa and Edler, a left-handed shot, stayed on the right side with steady veteran Dan Hamhuis, a top-four mix that stayed intact during a 3-2 shootout loss the next night in Los Angeles.

"We felt we needed to make a couple little changes and adjustments and I felt it worked really well in the L.A. game," coach Alain Vigneault said. "Playing against the Stanley Cup champions, it was our fourth game in six nights, and we played a real solid game."

For Garrison, who signed in his hometown as a free agent after a breakout season in Florida, it's about learning a new system, getting comfortable with a new playing partner, and reacting on the ice rather than thinking.

"There is going to be a period when you think about things more than just reacting to them, and that's part of the process," said Garrison, who is pointless but plus-2 in six games. "But you have to make that timeline very short and make it reactionary more than learning very quickly."

Here are the rest of the lines as the Canucks look to extend a 15-0-2 streak against the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday night, including goaltender Roberto Luongo getting a surprise second-straight start:

Daniel Sedin – Henrik Sedin – Zack Kassian

Chris Higgins – Alexandre Burrows – Jannik Hansen

Mason Raymond – Jordan Schroeder – Dale Weise

Manny Malhotra – Maxim Lapierre – Aaron Volpatti

Dan Hamhuis – Alexander Edler

Jason Garrison – Kevin Bieksa

Keith Ballard – Christopher Tanev

Roberto Luongo

Cory Schneider

Injured: Ryan Kesler, David Booth

Scratched: Andrew Ebbett, Andrew Alberts, Cam Barker

Notes: Lapierre, who has been playing through a groin "tweak" the last two games, participated in the morning skate, but could come out in favor of Andrew Ebbett on the fourth line.

Roberto Luongo will be back in goal for the Vancouver Canucks against the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday night -- the first time he's made consecutive starts since losing the No. 1 job to Cory Schneider in last year's Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Coach Alain Vigneault said the surprise start was his decision, but wouldn't elaborate on why he made it, or whether it raised more questions about who was his No. 1 goaltender.

"Tonight Louie is No. 1, he’s playing," Vigneult said. "I'm not going to get into all the logistics of what goes behind making a decision. Those are internal things and we'll just leave it at that."

Schneider was the presumed No. 1 after taking over from Luongo three games in last year's playoffs.

Luongo replaced a struggling Schneider in the season opener, and Vigneault made headlines by keeping Luongo in goal the following night. But he went back to Schneider for the third game, saying he was playing the goalie "that gave him the best chance to win," a line that seemed to re-confirm Schneider as the No. 1 going forward.

Schneider also started the next two games, including a shutout in Anaheim on Friday night and a 4-1 loss in San Jose on Sunday, before Luongo got another start in the second half of back-to-back games Monday in Los Angeles. Most assumed Schneider, who has a .897 save percentage overall but .935 since being pulled early in that opening game, to be back in goal against the Avalanche.

Instead it will be Luongo, who many -- including the goalie himself -- assumed would be traded before the season even started.

"My decision," Vigneault said after Wednesday's morning skate. "It's just my call. Just got back yesterday and that's what I decided."

Luongo has lost both his starts in shootouts, but has a .917 save percentage and looked sharp stopping 26 of 28 against the Kings.

"I couldn't tell you if I was surprised or not," Luongo said. "Like I have been saying, I just get ready to play every day and when I am called upon I just want to be ready. I am excited to get the start tonight and hopefully build off last game and get a win most importantly."

Luongo, a notorious slow starter in past seasons, feels good about his game after spending seven weeks working with former Toronto Maple Leafs goaltending coach Francois Allaire in Florida.

"I put a lot of work in during the lockout, and skating four times a week by yourself is something you don't get a chance to do very often, and working on some things you need to improve on really helped me out," Luongo said. "Coming into camp I found I was able to see the puck much better and make some good reads off shots that maybe took me a little while to get going in the past."

As for when he'll get another chance after Wednesday, Luongo wasn't sure, saying the goalies usually find out the day before.

"I don't know if there is a plan or not," he said.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- The Calgary Flames admittedly have struggled trying to adjust to a new coach and system after an abbreviated training camp, bordering between moments of brilliance and monumental breakdowns while losing their first two games.

So switching up all four lines for the third game, against Vancouver on Wednesday, may seem somewhat counterintuitive.

For new coach Bob Hartley, however, it's all about a learning curve that goes both ways -- players learning where to go and what to do in his system, while he also learns what to expect from them.

"I met them many times, I have talked to them over the phone and I watched many game tapes, but right now we are in game situations and just trying to find the best fit for all of them," Hartley said. "Just a matter of trying to get the best possible lines to generate good offense and at the same time be reliable in the three zones."

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- So much for Alain Vigneault’s theory about sticking with things that worked in the past as a way to overcome a short training camp.

The Vancouver Canucks coach has abandoned that philosophy after an 0-1-1 start, with the team calling up small, speedy center Jordan Schroeder from the American Hockey League for his first NHL game, and throwing his lines in a blender as Vancouver tries to record its first win against the winless Calgary Flames (0-2-0).

The biggest change is Alexandre Burrows moving from his spot alongside top-line twins Daniel and Henrik Sedin to center a new second line, between Chris Higgins and Jannik Hansen.

Burrows has played the middle a handful of times in the past, and said his defensive responsibilities won't change much from playing with the Sedins, where he often was the first forward back and assumed down-low coverage in his end.

"A little bit more skating, less board work, and maybe a little more responsible making sure no one gets caught deep and we're not giving up any odd-man rushes, but there’s not a whole lot," Burrows said of the move to the middle. "I don't overthink things, still go out and put work boots on."