Calgary Flames @ Vancouver Canucks — Feb. 24
Line: Flames (-182), Canucks (+150) — PROLINE +
Total: 6.5
Head-to-head: This is the second of four meetings between these Canadian rivals. The Flames took the first matchup 1-0 in overtime on Jan. 29 in Calgary.
About the Flames (30-13-6): Calgary tied a franchise record with its 10th straight win, a 3-1 victory over the Winnipeg Jets, on Monday. This was previously done on two occasions in franchise history during the 1978-79 and 2016-17 seasons.
After winning five games in a row by three or more goals, Calgary’s last two contests have been much tighter. The Flames squeezed past the Seattle Kraken by a score of 2-1 last Saturday. They held a slim one-goal lead Monday until Tyler Toffoli recorded an insurance marker with just 11 seconds remaining in the third period to give the team some breathing room. The Flames also set an NHL record by completing a perfect seven-game homestand with Monday’s win over Winnipeg. It’s the first time in league history that a team swept a homestand of seven or more games.
Calgary has played 600:29 during this ten-game win streak, or just over 30 periods of hockey.
They’ve trailed for a grand total of 37:25, or 6.2% of the time. They’ve held the lead for 311:27, or 51.9% of the time. That’s a pretty solid winning formula. #Flames
— Pat Steinberg (@Fan960Steinberg) February 22, 2022
Flames player to watch: Elias Lindholm has been on fire during the team’s winning streak with a team-best 16 points. He now shares the franchise record for consecutive games with a goal with Kent Nilsson and Gary Roberts, and he takes a 10-game points streak (nine goals, seven assists) into this matchup with the Canucks. Even more impressive, Lindholm has netted three consecutive game-winning goals for Calgary.
Longest goal streaks in NHL this season:#Flames Elias Lindholm – 8
Mitch Marner (TOR) – 8
Max Pacioretty (VGK) – 7
Auston Matthews (TOR) – 7 pic.twitter.com/YR92Funejo— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) February 22, 2022
About the Canucks (24-22-6): The Canucks cruised to a 5-2 victory over the Kraken on Monday, the team’s third win in its last four games. Head coach Bruce Boudreau is encouraged by the recent play of his checking line trio of Tyler Motte, Matthew Highmore, and Juho Lammikko, also known as the “Motto Line.” The group produced a pair of goals in the victory over Seattle while continuing to shut down the top lines of the opposition.
“They do what you ask them to do, and they can all skate,” Boudreau said after the contest. “They pressure, pressure, pressure. And where they used to just hold their own [defensively], now they’re starting to score some goals, and that makes them even more valuable in my mind.”
Vancouver is the only team to take a point off Calgary during its 10-game winning streak after forcing the Flames to overtime in a loss on Jan. 29. The Canucks, who own the worst penalty-killing unit in the league at 69.1%, have amassed 477 penalty minutes (ninth-most in the NHL) of their own. Calgary is converting 21.7% of its power-play chances, which is currently the 11th-best mark in the league.
Canucks player to watch: After a slow start to the season, Elias Pettersson has 17 points (eight goals, nine assists) in his last 15 games, leading all Canucks players in scoring during that span. Twelve of those points were at even strength, which is the most on the team in that time. The 23-year-old struggled mightily earlier this season as he continued to recover from a wrist injury, but he is showing no ill effects now.
As @Hockey_Robinson has pointed out, Elias Petterson has picked up from a relatively slow start and been on a tear since game 38, scoring 17 points in his last 15 games #fantasyhockey https://t.co/5LbFv9yrIP pic.twitter.com/GtR15hGFq3
— Scott McCartney (@ScottMccTech) February 22, 2022
Sports Betting trends:
- Flames are 4-1 in the last five meetings between the teams.
- The over is 7-1-3 in Calgary’s last 11 road games.
- The over is 6-1 in Vancouver’s last seven games.
- The Canucks are 1-5 in their last six games following a win.
- The favorite is 45-22 in the last 67 meetings between the teams.
Photo: Sergei Belski/USA TODAY
