Last time the Vancouver Canucks traveled to Calgary to face the Flames, they were riding high, atop the Western Conference.
As the Canucks return to Calgary on Saturday night for another road clash, they have lost five of eight games – a skid that began with a 5-2 defeat at the hands of the Flames on Nov. 16. The latest setback was Thursday’s 4-1 home loss to the defending Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights.
“It’s a learning lesson. They lost three in a row and we knew they were going to come at us,” coach Rick Tocchet said. “They’re strong on the puck. They’re Stanley Cup champs for a reason.”
The Canucks had no excuses to make for their performance against the Golden Knights, who took a two-goal first-period lead, and were up 4-0 before Vancouver managed any form of a successful pushback.
“It’s will and determination – things that are totally in our control,” Canucks forward J.T. Miller said. “When we’re playing well, we do them but now we tend to do them (only) every once in a while or every other night.”
The clash is expected to be the Vancouver debut of defenseman Nikita Zadorov, acquired from the Flames on Thursday. Zadorov, who had asked for a trade, collected one goal and six points in 21 games this season for Calgary, which acquired a pair of draft picks in return.
“We’re really excited,” Tocchet said. “He’s a big guy. He can skate. He can shoot. I’m sure he’s going to be fired up to play. And we need minutes.
“We’re playing some other guys too much, and you can tell it’s starting to wear on our defense.”
The Flames are looking for their first three-game winning streak of the season. After opening a crucial six-game homestand with a 2-1 overtime comeback win over the Golden Knights on Monday, Calgary scored a 4-2 overtime comeback win over the Dallas Stars on Thursday.
The Flames have surrendered the first goal in 11 of their past 13 games and trailed in all but one of those affairs, yet have cobbled together an 8-3-2 run to pull to .500 on the season after a dreadful opening to the campaign.
“I just think we’re sticking to the process of how we want to play. I thought we were a bit unfortunate to be down …,” Chris Tanev said. “Usually when you do the same thing over and over and over again, and you’re making the right decisions, good things will happen.”
Tanev was one of three defensemen to score against Dallas. Calgary’s crew of blue liners has netted 14 goals in the past 14 games.
“It’s huge they’re scoring goals,” said Nazem Kadri, who scored the overtime winner against the Stars.
“Everybody’s on the same page, pulling on the same rope. We like to get our defense involved, that’s part of the offense we have.”
As much as the game will be the focus, Zadorov’s return to face his old teammates will be an underlying story.
“He’s gonna have a few bucks on the board, that’s for sure,” Kadri said.
