Coach Fletcher’s NHL
Pick
Saturday, Oct 10
7pm Calgary Flames at Vancouver Canucks
The Pick 1*
Vancouver Canucks -150 Westgate
The Canucks beat the Flames 5-1 on opening night in
Calgary. It looks like the Canucks are
picking up where they left off last season.
Vancouver has now won 4 straight regular season contests and they have
scored 5 or more goals in 3 of those.
And one thing you can be pretty sure of – when the Canucks connect for 5
goals or more they will win. They’ve
collected 37 straight wins with 5 or more goals.
The Canucks have shown they can beat the Flames at
home. Vancouver is 8-1 in their last 9
at Rogers Arena.
Getting a couple of days rest has helped both teams in the
past. Calgary last year was 13-9-1 off 2
days rest while Vancouver was 14-7-1, 7th best in the NHL.
It’s true that the Canucks lost a 6 game playoff series to
their Western Conference foes last year.
But in regular season play the Canucks have dominated. The Flames only went 1-2 in the playoffs last
year on the road in Vancouver and sits at 2-6-4 in their last 12 at
Vancouver. The Flames were outscored by
the Canucks 34-18 in those very games.
The Flames have been bad in season openers going 0-5-1 in
their last 6. And there is certainly no
reason to think they can reverse the 5-1 beating they took on opening
night. Vancouver’s topline of Henrik,
Sedin and Sutter combined for 3 goals and 3 assists. Brandon Sutter was acquired from Pittsburgh
in July and the Canucks immediately moved him from center to wing after he had
spent 7 years at center.
Sedin had a goal and 2 assists and clearly likes to play
against the Flames. Including the
postseason, Sedin had 5 goals and 7 assists against Calgary.
Ryan Miller had another solid game between the pipes for the
Canucks. He had 29 saves Wednesday and
his save percentage against the Flames is a tidy .924 in seven games. Flames goalie Karri Ramos is just 2-3-1
against the Canucks with a .899 save percentage in 6 games.
This one should be a comfortable home win for a solid
Canucks team. It’s a little too early in
the season to go more than 1* however.
Vancouver opened at -150 in Las Vegas and trended a little higher as time
moved on.
I like the Vancouver Canucks to win this one!
The Pick Vancouver Canucks - 150
Westgate 1*