First off, Mike Cammalleri will not be facing his former team tonight as we found out yesterday that he'll be unavailable for the game. Add him to Lance Bouwma, Blake Comeau, Mikael Backlund, Blair Jones, and Lee Stempniak as players whom we know won't be in the lineup tonight. Let's also not forget that Chris Butler remains sidelined as well on the back end so the walking wounded parade continues in Calgary as they cling to their faint hopes of a post-season spot.
The injuries necessitated the recalls of Guilaume Desbiens, Krys Kolanos, and Greg Nimisz from Abbotsford yesterday as the Flames would like to be able to fill out a full roster as they continue the season. The current man games lost total sits at 296, and many have been lauding the fact that they haven't used injuries as an excuse. Now, obviously it's good for the optics of the situation to not use injuries as an excuse, but whether you have an excuse or not, and regardless of whether or not you're playing the woe is me card, 11 place is still 11th place, and the argument kind of loses steam on whether or not the team is viewing their their situation in the most positive light...
Although the Flames are running out of forwards, they do have one on a pretty good hot-steak as Curtis Glencross has been able to tickle the twine in four straight games, add that to the fact that the Flames have scored four or more goals in five of their last six games against the Habs, and hopefully for once offence won't be an issue tonight. Incidentally, his recent hot hand leaves Curtis just 2 shy of his career high of 24 goals. He also leads the NHL in shooting percentage with a 25.9% conversion rate.
The Flames haven't been too shabby defensively against Montreal as of late either as they've managed to hold the Canadiens to just five goals over their last four meetings which includes two shutouts.
The second period has been awful for the Flames, no-one can dispute that. But, if they can find a way to carry the lead to the end of 40 minutes, the Flames have an impressive 20-0-4 record in games they've led after 2.
Tonight is considered to be a must win but who's kidding who? At this point, unless the Flames can find a way to string 10 victories together, they'll ALL be must win!
Did anyone catch Cammalleri on Mr. D last night on CBC?
Have a great day!
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