The Vancouver Canucks may have a goalie controversy, but there is no doubt about the team's tremendous performance of late. The team will look to continue its solid start when it hosts the Calgary Flames on Saturday night in a battle of Northwest division rivals.
The Canucks currently own a four-game winning streaking thanks to timely goaltending from both of players in their tandem. Roberto Luongo sparked the team to three straight wins while Cory Schneider picked up the most recent victory over Minnesota on Thursday. The play of both goalie has been so solid that General Manager Mike Gillis stated on Friday that he is ready to keep both netminders until the end of the season.
"Every team is discussing options all the time and we're just like them, we are discussing different possibilities all the time," Gillis stated during an interview on Friday. "We're open to those discussions if they can improve our hockey team. Right now, we have two great goalies, we're perfectly happy if we continue this way right through to the end of the playoffs. If something comes our way that we think improves our team in a different way which allows us a better opportunity to win the Stanley Cup, we are going to look at it."
Schneider replaced Luongo during last year's NHL playoffs and it was believed that the move spelled the end of Luongo's career in Vancouver. Luongo even admitted that he was open to a trade and mentioned that his preferred locations included the two Florida teams; Luongo used to play for the Florida Panthers and his family continues to live there. The entire summer was dominated by trade rumors that speculated on the netminder's eventual destination. Many pundits stated that Toronto was the most probably destination but there was little to no advancement on the trades. The rumors continued throughout the lockout and start of the season, but Luongo shut up the critics with an astounding 1.53 goals against average and 94.0 save percentage in just six games; Schneider currently boasts a 2.66 GAA and 90.8 save percentage.
Regardless of who starts in Calgary the Canucks know that they will be in for a tough match. Calgary has won two straight after a dreadful 1-3-2 start to the season. In their most recent match, the Flames took down the Columbus Blue Jackets in overtime thanks to a goal from Alex Tanguay.
"The whole team is playing better and better and hopefully we can keep on building confidence and winning more games," Tanguay said.
"There's nothing better. It's pretty exciting," added goalie Leland Irving. "The boys really came through tonight, they played great. I'm glad they were rewarded with two points."
Rookie Ben Street will make his debut for Flames on Saturday; he is a native of Vancouver.
The teams faced off on Jan. 23 when the Canucks defeated the Flames 3-2.
Prediction: Vancouver is on fire and will extend its winning streak to five; 6-3 Canucks.
Start Time: 10 PM EST
TV: CSC