5 Things - Flames @ Canucks

1. Feels Like The First Time

The Flames have climbed mountains (or at least flown over them), and find themselves next to a not-so-stormy sea ahead of a Saturday night showdown in spring-like Vancouver.

It’s the first trip to Lotusland this season for the Flames, and the first meeting between the two sides since a blockbuster trade during the All-Star break that saw Andrei Kuzmenko and Elias Lindholm swap postal codes.

That move was one of several made by the Flames in advance of the March 8 NHL Trade Deadline, but since that time, there’s been a bit of synthesis in the Calgary dressing room, in particular among a new-look defence corps.

In all, four new faces have joined the Flames’ blueline since the calendar switched to 2024, but assistant coach Dan Lambert suggests the members of the group are starting to figure each other out.

And that includes a partnership between Daniil Miromanov and MacKenzie Weegar that offers plenty of potential.

“Miro and Weegs, I think there’s something there,” Lambert told Flames TV’s Brendan Parker after practice Friday. “When you look at them, Miro plays a similar style to (Aaron) Ekblad maybe, and Weegs played with Ekblad for a long time, so that was our thought there.

“And then Kylington and Ras, I think they’ve played pretty well together, again, not a huge sample size, once we got (Kylington) back, it really helped solidify our defence as well.”

Tonight, that new-look defence corps will be relied upon to contain a Vancouver offence that’s helped pace the Canucks to the top seed in the Western Conference.

But in recent memory, the Flames have risen to the challenge, posing four wins from their last five games against teams currently in Western Conference playoff positions, a run that includes victories against the Jets, Golden Knights and Oilers.

They’ll look to make it five out of six tonight.

2. Know Your Enemy

The Canucks strengthened their hold on the Pacific Division Thursday, by way of a 4-1 home-ice victory over the Canadiens.

Nikita Zadorov scored twice for Vancouver, Conor Garland and Nils Aman chipped in with singles while at the other end of the rink, Casey DeSmith turned aside 16 shots to improve to 2-1-1 since taking over the starting netminder role for the injured Thatcher Demko.

The Canucks are in the midst of a nine-game homestand, tonight’s encounter is game number six over that stretch.

And seemingly all of a sudden, expectations are high on the West Coast.

Over the past 12 years, only one Vancouver squad has collected more than the 96 points amassed by the 2023-24 Canucks this winter, and this year’s group still has 12 games left on their regular season calendar.

Offensively, it’s a deep group.

J.T. Miller is the pace-setter for Vancouver with 89 points this season, and he’s one of only three Canucks to average more than a point per game in 2023-24.

As for Lindholm, he has tallied two even-strength goals in 21 games since moving to the West Coast, and he sits -6 since the Jan. 31 trade.

Make no mistake, this Canucks group offers promise to a city in search of its first NHL Stanley Cup.

They’ll be a story to watch come playoff time.

3. Fast Facts

2023-24 Season Series

The Flames and Canucks split the first two meetings of the regular season, both of which took place at the Scotiabank Saddledome.

Calgary took the opener by a 5-2 scoreline Nov. 16 thanks to goals from five different players; Jonathan Huberdeau helped pace the offence with a tally and an assist.

Vancouver evened the season series at a game apiece by virtue of a 4-3 win Dec. 2 - Elias Petersson’s empty-netter stood up as the eventual game-winner.

After tonight’s contest, the two sides will meet once more at Rogers Arena Apr. 16.

Did You Know?

Flames netminder Jacob Markstrom recorded 99 wins as a Canuck from his 218 regular season appearances with the team.

In 206 games with Calgary, Markstrom has earned 104 career victories.

4. Quotable

Dan Lambert on the Weegar - Miromanov partnership:

"Lately, we’ve been using them a lot against the other team’s top lines, and they’ve handled those minutes pretty well, a role that belonged to (Chris) Tanev and (Noah) Hanifin more often than not before that. And obviously we know that Andersson and Kylington can handle some of those minutes as well. It’s been a nice fit so far, and hopefully they can continue to just learn each other more and more, and feel more comfortable, and hopefully they’re a pair for us for a while."

5. Players To Watch

Flames - MacKenzie Weegar

Weegar scored his 16th goal of the season Monday against Washington - a total exceeeded by only three NHL defencemen this season.

He comes into tonight’s game with four points - and eight shots on goal - from his last two contests, and sits four points shy of the career-high 44 points he logged with the Florida Panthers in 2021-22.

And he’s been doing it all at five-on-five: of the dozen NHL defencemen with 12 or more tallies this season, Weegar, Thomas Harley (Dallas) and Jake Walman (Detroit) are the only three with fewer than two powerplay goals.

Canucks - Quinn Hughes

The Vancouver captain is climbing up the franchise’s defensive scoring leaderboard, with 320 points from his 353 career outings with the club.

With two more goals or assists, he’d pass both Jyrki Lumme and Dennis Kearns to move into third place among all-time Vancouver defencemen in career points - and first among North American-born players to patrol the Canucks blue line.

In his first season as Canucks captain, Hughes has set the pace for NHL rearguards in terms of points - totalling 79 to this point in what’s turned out to be a career year for the 24-year-old.