Are the Calgary Flames trying to intimidate the Vancouver Canucks?

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      The Calgary Flames take on the Vancouver Canucks in the former’s home opener tonight (after the Canucks downed the Flames 5-2 in their own home debut).

      But before puck drop, the Flames made a couple moves that seemed suspiciously geared towards winning the physical battle rather than the actual hockey game.

      Calgary has made two lineup changes in advance of the rematch, slotting in defenceman Dalton Prout for Travis Hamonic.

      Hamonic is unavailable for the game after having his face caved in (we believe that’s the medical term for what happened) by Erik Gudbranson after a somewhat questionable hit by the Canucks defenceman on Flames forward Dillon Dube led to a fight between the two.

      It’s pretty clear to most parties involved that the inclusion of Prout, who has registered 306 penalty minutes in 242 NHL games (along with 36 points) over a promising youngster like Rasmus Andersson is meant as a warning sign to the Canucks and Gudbranson in particular.

      This, of course, wouldn’t be the first time a contest between the rivals got messy (the John Tortorella disaster comes to mind), but one would hope that the Flames would want to just play a solid game of hockey instead of trying to beat up the Canucks in a misguided attempt at retribution.

      Bill Peters is Calgary’s new coach (and a darling of the analytics community for his work with the Carolina Hurricanes), but it appears that it’ll be business as usual for the Flames, who are employing outdated tactics here.

      It’s likely the Flames win anyway (they’re the home team and project to be more talented, plus they’ll ostensibly be fired up after Wednesday’s loss), but here’s betting Dalton Prout has little to no impact on that, even if (when) he drops the gloves.

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