Checking From Behind Pulling No Punches

After 3 straight losses, the Calgary Flames return home for 5 straight games and look to win them all. They start their surge tonight as they host the Vancouver Canucks - a team they opened the season against in a dominant fashion with a 5-3 victory.

"That was a scrappy game," Canucks defenseman Willie Mitchell said after the game. "We didn't play great, but we found a way. They jammed the neutral zone a lot and didn't allow us to generate much speed."

While the Flames do have games to write home about, this past week was not a favorable experience for them. Last Friday they were shut down 5-2 by the Dallas Stars, they then blew a 5 goal lead and lost to the Chicago Blackhawks 6-5 in overtime on Monday, and Tuesday brought a collapse against the Columbus Blue Jackets as they lose 2-1.

"Our mindsets were right coming into the game tonight. We had a good first period and then we backed off in the second period," said Flames head coach Brent Sutter after Tuesday night's game against Columbus. "We kind of shot ourselves in the foot in the second and that kind of took the momentum away from us there for a while with a couple of quick penalties and a couple of quick goals."

Sutter decided to shuffle his lines up to regain some chemistry and momentum heading into tonight's battle against the Canucks. Craig Conroy now joins Curtis Glencross and Jarome Iginla on the first line. Daymond Langkow centered the second line between Nigel Dawes and Rene Bourque, while Olli Jokinen found himself on the third line with Fredrik Sjostrom and Eric Nystrom. Brian McGrattan jumped into the lineup with Dustin Boyd and Brandon Prust as his linemates.

The defensive pairings remained somewhat similar: Bouwmeester with Sarich, Regehr with Phaneuf and Pardy with Giordano. Kronwall also skated with Johnson.

The Flames hope their new lines will ignite the Flames and get them back onto the winning side of the games, but it will certainly be a battle as the Canucks are now riding a 2 game win streak and are not willing to look back.

Micheal A. Aldred

michealaldred@hotmail.com