NHL Hockey Betting: Vancouver Canucks at Calgary Flames

The Vancouver Canucks looked every bit like the ‘old’ Canucks in Game Three of this series as they lost their cool and were beaten by the Flames mentally and physically with a final score of 4-2. Whether or not they can regain their composure remains to be seen but it’s not going to be easy playing their hated rivals the Calgary Flames at the Scotiabank Saddledome. Calgary now holds a 2-1 lead in this best of seven series and would love to go home leading 3-1 and with their foot on Vancouver’s throat.

Vancouver will play this game without Alexandre Burrows who was considered a possibility to be suspended following his thuggish behavior at the end of Game Three. Instead, he got caught by kamra–he reportedly suffered an ‘upper body injury’ during the morning skate. No other details were forthcoming on the nature or severity of the injury. The Canucks really got away clean after they decided to try to rough up the Flames when it became apparent they couldn’t win on the ice. Dan Hamhuis also thugged it up, at one point delivering a hard slash to diminutive Johnny Gaudreau but ‘Johnny Hockey’ quickly returned to the game and assisted on a goal.

Calgary is a scrappy team. They managed to make the playoffs despite a slew of injuries, most significantly to captain Mark Giordano. The Flames won 7 of 12 down the stretch to make the playoffs and are for now in control of this series. The teams split four games this season with each winning one on enemy ice. The Canucks have won 12 of 17 overall including 4 of the last 7 in Calgary but that has more to do with the dismal play of the Flames in recent years than anything else. At this point, this is a fairly even matchup with the Flames solid at home and the Canucks decent on the road. The mental edge has to go to Calgary–they came into this series ‘loose’ while the Canucks know that an early playoff exit won’t sit well with the Vancouver faithful. They played that way in Game Three and we don’t see them getting their mojo back here.

BET CALGARY FLAMES -110 OVER VANCOUVER CANUCKS