GAME DAY: Canucks vs Flames

Welcome to Episode 5, I think, of the Most Important Game Of The Season(c). To put this into perspective, should the Canucks win both games of this home and home series against the Flames, they will extend their lead over them in the NW Division to 9 points. Should they lose both, that lead will be down to a single point. Fortunately, the Canucks have decided that they aren't going to let a groin injury to Roberto Luongo stop them from continuing to play their best hockey of the season. They have only allowed more than 2 goals against once in their last 10 games, and have gone 8-0-2 since their 3-2 loss to Detroit to start the month of November.

Curtis Sanford has played quite well in Luongo's absence, posting a 1.69 GAA in the 3 consecutive games he has played. This game is likely to have a little more than the normal emotion between 2 bitter divisional rivals, as the Flames are unlikely to have forgotten the 2 losses they opened the season with against Vancouver, 6-0 and a 5-4 ot loss that the Flames led 3-1 at one point. Calgary's issue this year seems to be consistency. Mikka Kiprusoff is far from his All Star form of years past, and the once vaunted Calgary defence has made it harder for him by ensuring he leads the league in shots faced. The Flames will look as always to Jarome Iginla to lead the way, something he didn't do against the Canucks in the first 2 games,as he was held pointless. Iginla once again leads the Flames in goals, assists and points, but they will need more efforts like the 6-2 thumping of LA Thursday night if they want to catch the Canucks, a game that saw Mike Cammalleri and Rene Bourque score 2 a piece. Balanced scoring has been a big part of the Canucks' success so far this season, but their top line of Daniel & Henrik Sedin along with Pavol Demitra have been on a tear since being formed upon Demitra's return from injury. One of the real keys to this battle tonight is on defence. Vancouver's lunch bucket crew, led by Willie Mitchell, whose +16 leads all defencemen, and a possible return by Kevin Bieksa, against NHL poster boy (yeah it baffles the hell out of me, too...) Dion Phaneuf and Robyn Regehr. Phaneuf has been forced to play more minutes than ever due to sharp decline on the talent scale after himself and Regehr, averaging more than 28 minutes per game. The Canucks have had good success against the Flames on home ice recently, winning 6 of their last 8, and as we saw against Pittsburgh and Detroit, it would be a mistake to count this team out merely because Roberto Luongo is out of the lineup.

As mentioned, Bieksa is expected to return tonight, and hopes are he will slide right back into the groove he was in before the injury, where he was showing signs of being the defenceman we had seen in him earlier in his career. A bad loss for the Canucks though is that of Ryan Johnson, who has a broken finger on his right hand and broken bone in his left foot. 3 to 5 weeks is the prognosis for the Canucks shot blocking expert. Steve Bernier is doubtful tonight after injuring his shoulder and foot in an awkward colision with the boards Monday night. Luongo, btw is still listed as week to week but canucks.com reports he could return as early as next week. Rick Rypien is still on the IR with a sports hernia tear. The Flames could be without Dustin Boyd, who was injured Tuesday against the Kings. They are also missing Jim Vandermeer and Rhett Warriner.

Keys to the game:
1- Early shutdown: Seems simple enough, but a key for a Canucks win this year seems to be keeping the opponents off the scoresheet in the first. The Canucks are 10-0-2 when they don't allow a goal in the opening period, and 4-6-0 when they do. So a strong start defensively against a Flames team that will no doubt come charging out of the gate will be a huge factor.

2- Picking your battles: It wasn't bad enough the Canucks outscored the Flames in those 2 games 11-4, they also physically dominated the Flames (check out the Rick Rypien beatdown of Brandon Prust in the October archives). While Vandermeer is out of the lineup, you can almost guarantee Andre Roy will attempt to make his impact felt in the first 5 minutes of the game. I would not be shocked not only to see Jarome Iginla fight, but for there to be a line brawl in this one. It smells like old time hockey, and the Canucks must be ready to let the Flames know that they will go with them, but only when it makes sense. If they get an early lead, let the Flames take the penalty and kill them on the PP.

3- Big games from big players: Sure, everyone needs to play their roles. But in games like this, you need your top players to step up. The PHD line will need to continue their hot streak (26 points in the last 6 games) and they will also need some production from Ryan Kesler, Alex Burrows and Kyle Wellwood. Defensively, Willie Mitchell, Mattias Ohlund and Sami Salo must continue their strong play on both sides of the puck. Vancouver has 20 more points from the D compared to this time last season, one huge factor in their success thus far.

The beauty of this run the Canucks find themselves on is it's not like each game finds them making Cinderella-type comebacks with lots of fluke goals. The wins have come with basic, honest hard work to a man from this team. They have jelled in a way we aren't used to seeing with the club, and it's kind of nice. There really isn't any reason to think they can't continue to roll, if they bring the same work ethic and attitude to GM place tonight. The game goes at 7 on Sportsnet and the team 1040.