The Vancouver Canucks (48-29-5) and Calgary Flames (45-30-7) start out on the road to the Stanley Cup tonight at Rogers Arena. It’s the first playoff meeting between the two franchises since 2004 and the seventh overall (Flames hold a 4-2 edge). The teams split their four-game regular season series with each team winning at home and on the road. They have not met in Vancouver since a 1-0 Flames win on January 10.

Eddie Lack is expected to make his first NHL post-season start. Lack has not played since a 5-0 shutout win over Arizona last Thursday. He has allowed one goal in his last 135 minutes of hockey. The Canucks are also expected to have Brad Richardson (ankle) back in their lineup for the first time since March 17. The veteran centre has played just two games since the All-Star break and has missed the past 13 Canuck contests. 

Daniel Sedin scored in the final four games of the regular season, while Henrik Sedin will be suiting up for the 100th NHL playoff game of his career. Alex Edler had 1+5=6 in his final two games of the regular season. All three of those players carry four-game point streaks into action tonight: Daniel 4+4=8, Edler 1+7=8 and Henrik 1+6=7.

Team MVP Radim Vrbata has gone six games without a goal (March 30 at St. Louis). Chris Higgins has gone 14 playoff games without a point dating back to Game 2 against Boston in the 2011 Stanley Cup Final, while Jannik Hansen has gone seven without registering a point and has one goal in his last nine playoff outings.

The Canucks finished the season with the NHL’s second best penalty killing (85.7%) and a power play that enters the post-season 11/33 (33.3%) in the past dozen games. However, no team in the league spent less time killing penalties this season than the Flames. In fact, the Canucks were shorthanded 80 times more than the Flames during the regular season (266-186). Calgary averaged the third fewest penalty minutes per game this season (7.6) behind Carolina and Chicago. The Canucks were 26th in that category (10.9) ahead of St. Louis, Columbus, Winnipeg and Pittsburgh.

The faceoff dot will be an interesting study in this series. Calgary finished 26th in the NHL on draws this season (47.4%) while the Canucks tied for 28th (46.7%). The series features the two players who lost more faceoffs than anyone else in the NHL in Sean Monahan (928) and Henrik Sedin (861). Of players in this series who took more than 500 faceoffs during the season, Bo Horvat leads the way at 51.4%, followed by Matt Stajan at 50.3%.

As a franchise, the Flames return to the playoffs tonight for the first time since 2009. Bob Hartley’s team hits the post season with wins in three of their last four games and five of seven. Jonas Hiller is expected to get the nod in net. He started two and appeared in six games for Anaheim in last year’s post-season.

The Flames were led this season by a pair of 31-goal men in Sean Monahan and Jiri Hudler. Hudler led the team in scoring with 31+45=76 and led the NHL with 60 even-strength points. Rookie Johnny Gaudreau, who scored his first NHL goal at Rogers Arena in last year’s regular-season finale, had 24+40=64 this season, which left him tied with Ottawa’s Mark Stone for the freshman scoring lead.

Led by Dennis Wideman 56 points, Calgary’s defense produced 45+150=195 this season. By comparison, the Canucks blueline generated 34+113=147.

The Flames were 22-6-1 in the Pacific Division this season and a remarkable 10-20-4 when trailing after two periods.

Former Vancouver Giant Lance Bouma, who had a terrific season with 16 goals, is out with an upper body injury, while former Canuck Mason Raymond may be a healthy scratch tonight. Raymond alternated with rookie Sam Bennett during the morning skate on a line with Mikael Backlund and Joe Colborne.

Veteran referees Chris Lee and Brad Watson will work Game 1 of this series.