Vancouver Canucks: Opening Weekend Preview, Predictions

The Vancouver Canucks open the 2016-17 season with a back-to-back weekend — The Canuck Way writers make their predictions.

After a long, dreary offseason, the wait is finally over: Vancouver Canucks hockey is back.

Will the Canucks finish 30th? Or will they compete for a playoff spot? Answers to all of our questions are coming, beginning Saturday night.

The line combinations look… interesting.

Remember this time last season, when coach Willie Desjardins opened the season with Brandon Sutter playing the wing with Henrik Sedin and Daniel Sedin?

It looks like there are more silly line combinations to come:

The top line and defense pairs are as expected, but the bottom-nine forwards look like this:

Brendan Gaunce — Brandon Sutter — Jannik Hansen
Sven Baertschi — Markus Granlund — Jake Virtanen
Alexandre Burrows — Bo Horvat — Derek Dorsett

If the Canucks keep these combinations, Brendan Gaunce will be put through a major test, stepping up to the second line in his first home opener.

Bo Horvat, meanwhile, appears to have been demoted to the fourth line. Markus Granlund has taken Bo’s presumed place between Sven Baertschi and Jake Virtanen.

Granlund was one of the best forwards at training camp, and the Canucks believe he can be a playmaking center. Meanwhile, they want Horvat to draw some of the tougher defensive match-ups.

This is the latest in a long string of attempts to get a “balanced” lineup with scoring throughout. While I understand the impulse, Willie D is simply overthinking this. The Canucks have little enough scoring depth as it is, spreading it out does not seem wise.

Hopefully sanity will prevail in the end.

October 15, 2016: Canucks vs. Calgary Flames

Just like last season, Vancouver will start with a game versus the arch-rival Calgary Flames.

The Canucks hope that the schedule is the only thing this rivalry has in common with last season. The Flames beat the Canucks in the season series 4-1, outscoring them 20-13.

More from The Canuck Way

• Which team won the Bo Horvat trade?
• What to expect from newcomers Anthony Beauvillier, Aatu Räty
• Back to the future: How the skate uniforms became a regular Canucks’ feature night
• Canucks kick off 2023 with disappointing 6-2 loss to Islanders
• 2nd period penalty trouble sinks Canucks in 4-2 loss against Winnipeg

The Flames upgraded their goaltending in the offseason, dumping Karri Ramo, Jonas Hiller and Joni Ortio and replacing them with Brian Elliott and Chad Johnson. Their league-worst save percentage should improve.

Hopefully, newcomer Loui Eriksson can help the Canucks close the gap.

The Canucks and the Flames split their two preseason games. The puck drops at 7 PM Pacific Time.

Ben Dooley:

Although he won’t match Auston Matthews‘ NHL debut, Matthew Tkachuk leads the way past the Canucks. Debate ensues over why the Canucks picked Olli Juolevi.

Janik Beichler:

The usual tough game against a rival, with few goals but a lot of scrums and penalties. The Canucks win it because, hey, we need some positivity to start the year.

Gerald Morton:

I predict the Canucks beat Calgary 6-1 and the Sedin-Eriksson line scores 4 goals. (I’ve picked them in all my hockey pools, so this is a bit of wishful thinking.)

Jeff Godley:

After waiting until Jan 17 to score his first NHL goal, Ben Hutton will open the scoring for the Canucks this season. The Sedins and Eriksson will take over after that, combining for two, including a power-play goal. Alex Burrows will add the empty-netter.