The skate jersey is back (in black) tonight, as well as a special warmup jersey celebrating Black History Month.

VANCOUVER CANUCKS (24-22-6) vs CALGARY FLAMES (30-13-6)

ROGERS ARENA, VANCOUVER, BC

7:00PM PST

TV: SPORTSNET, SPORTSNET 360. RADIO: SPORTSNET 650

OPPOSING BLOG: MATCHSTICKS AND GASOLINE

As weird as it feels, there’s a hockey game tonight, though we’d certainly never hold it against you if you checked out for a bit right now, given the state of affairs. But for those of you who could welcome a distraction from the bleakness, we’re happy to be here for you as the Canucks play their last home game of the month against the hottest team in the league right now, the Calgary Flames.

The Flames are on absolute tear right now, winners of ten straight, and while they might not be able to catch the Colorado Avalanche for top spot in the West, they certainly have the entire NHL taking notice. It’s also going to be the first visit back to Rogers Arena in front of actual fans for Chris Tanev and Jacob Markstrom. It sucks seeing these two in Flames colours, not gonna lie. Thanks, Jim.

The Canucks are coming off a 5-2 win over the Seattle Kraken on Monday night, that saw Tyler Motte score eleven seconds into the game, then storm back with four unanswered goals after trailing 2-1 at the end of the first period. This isn’t the Kraken they’re up against tonight though, and the margin for error is a hell of a lot smaller than it was against Seattle.

LINEUPS

Flames projected lineup

Johnny Gaudreau — Elias Lindholm — Matthew Tkachuk

Andrew Mangiapane — Mikael Backlund — Blake Coleman

Milan Lucic — Sean Monahan — Tyler Toffoli

Dillon Dube — Adam Ruzicka — Trevor Lewis

Noah Hanifin — Rasmus Andersson

Oliver Kylington — Christopher Tanev

Nikita Zadorov — Erik Gudbranson

Jacob Markstrom

Dan Vladar

Scratched: Michael Stone, Brad Richardson, Brett Ritchie

Injured: None

Canucks projected lineup

Jason Dickinson — Bo Horvat — Brock Boeser

Tanner Pearson — J.T. Miller — Conor Garland

Vasily Podkolzin — Elias Pettersson — Nils Hoglander

Tyler Motte — Juho Lammikko — Matthew Highmore

Oliver Ekman-Larsson — Tyler Myers

Quinn Hughes — Travis Hamonic

Brad Hunt — Luke Schenn

Thatcher Demko

Jaroslav Halak

Scratched: Alex Chiasson, Madison Bowey

Injured: Kyle Burroughs (upper body), Tucker Poolman (headaches), Brady Keeper (leg), Brandon Sutter (illness)

GAME DAY CHATTER

GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN

The best damn metal band to ever come outta Ireland with a rager off ‘Tales From The Grave In Space’, here’s ‘Three Witches’. Enjoy the game, stay safe, and remember we love ya.