Flames at Canucks
A new era is underway with the Vancouver Canucks, who enter the season without the Sedin twins in the lineup for the first time since 1999-2000. Daniel and Henrik Sedin, who each amassed 1,000 career points, retired but another elite Swedish talent provides Vancouver with hope for the future entering Wednesday's season opener versus the visiting Calgary Flames.
Elias Pettersson, the No. 5 overall pick of the Canucks in this year's draft, already is being touted as a Calder Trophy favorite and joins emerging young offensive talent in second-year forward Brock Boeser and Bo Horvat. "We've got some young players I hope are ready to contribute offensively yet we don't want to put that kind of pressure that they have to carry a team," Vancouver coach Travis Green said. The Flames reached the postseason with 94 points in 2016-17 but had 10 fewer points last season, leading to myriad moves to bolster a sagging offense and raise the hopes of returning to the playoffs. "You want high expectations," new coach Bill Peters said. "When you have high expectations, that means your team is good and you have a chance to win. When there's no expectation, you're going through the motions and you're playing out the string."
TV: 10 p.m. ET, SportsNet
ABOUT THE FLAMES (2017-18: 37-35-10, 5TH IN PACIFIC): Calgary ranked 27th in scoring last season, lacking consistency behind the 1-2 punch of Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan on its top line. To that end, the Flames signed James Neal, a 20-goal scorer in 10 of his 11 seasons, and imported a pair of former Carolina forwards in center Derek Ryan and winger Elias Lindholm to supplement Matthew Tkachuk and Mikael Backlund, who combined for 94 points last season. Defenseman Noah Hanifin, like Lindholm a former No. 5 overall draft pick, also arrived in the trade that sent Dougie Hamilton to Carolina. Goaltender Mike Smith, 36, had an uneven first season with the Flames, laboring down the stretch.
ABOUT THE CANUCKS (2017-18: 31-40-11, 7TH IN PACIFIC): Boeser had a superb rookie campaign with 29 goals and 55 points and Horvat added 22 goals playing alongside Sven Baertschi despite none of the trip playing in more than 64 games. Pettersson, who will center the No. 2 line, led the Swedish League in scoring with 24 goals and 56 points in 44 games and was named the MVP in both the regular season and the postseason in his first year. Vancouver signed defensive forwards in Jay Beagle, Tim Schaller and Antoine Roussel, but the blue line remains unchanged after the Canucks surrendered the sixth-most goals in the league last season. Jacob Markstrom returns as the starting netminder.
OVERTIME
1. Flames F Dillon Dube, who captained Canada's gold medal-winning team at the world juniors in 2018, made the roster.
2. Boeser had 10 goals and 23 points on the power play as a rookie.
3. Calgary tied with Chicago for 28th on the power play last season, converting on 16 percent of its chances.