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The Calgary Flames will take on the Montreal Canadiens tonight in front of a home crowd.
Despite riding the pine as the Flames backup tender for their season opener behind Karri Ramo, MacDonald has been given the nod to start his third game in a row against the Habs later tonight. As I frequently update twitter with such news, I found myself in the middle of several conversations regarding the above mentioned.
Given that Ramo was thought to be the best goalie outside of the NHL, most fans were expecting that the netminder would start off the season as their starter and further, play the majority of the games for Calgary this year. Unfortunately for Ramo and fans alike, that hasn’t been the case as veteran goalie Joey MacDonald has earned the respect of his coach with his performance so far.
“I felt that Mac played pretty well, gave us some big saves at key times,” Hartley said. “It’s just basically a gut feeling from all the coaching staff. I sat with Clint (Malarchuk), I sat with Jacques (Cloutier), with Marty (Gelinas). We talked about it. We have three goalies capable of playing in the NHL. Right now we feel that Mac is the one who deserves to play.”
“It’s nothing against Karri Ramo,” he said. “Right now, it’s what we see from Joey MacDonald. It was the same thing before Game 1. In training camp, we saw a little bit more from Karri and that’s why he got the start. Right now we’re seeing a little bit more from Joey and that’s why he’s playing. After tomorrow night, maybe the story will be the same, maybe it’s going to be a different one.”
It appears, from the above comments, that the coaching staff still feels uncomfortable with Ramo at this point, despite his strong play in the preseason. A few observations that I’ve made with respect to Karri’s play so far has been that he struggles moving from post to post.
Whether the tender is still trying to get accustomed to North American sized rinks and or speed of the game is left to be seen, however it seems to me that the coaching staff wants to give their team the best odds to win each game this year and they feel that MacDonald provides just that.
Again, this isn’t to knock Ramo’s game as he has shown some strong play so far, but it appears that the steady confidence of MacDonald is what the coaches feel is best for the team at this point. While we can all watch games, sit back and think “Ramo should be in because MacDonald isn’t playing outstanding hockey by any means”, what most of us miss is how Ramo is doing in practices and drills with the team.
As I maintained last night over twitter, I like the decision by the coaching staff to go with the guy who they feel gives them their best chance. They have a much better look at these guys than we do, and although we want to develop Karri Ramo into the starting goalie, the coaching staff made it perfectly clear that they will not deal with any B.S. or excuses this year.
They are not prepared to play Ramo until he proves he is more than ready and earns the spot, and until then they play veteran MacDonald who is more than willing. Good on them.
"I don't think too much, just keep on working," said the affable netminder following Tuesday's practice. "I didn't get the start for Game 1, so you keep working and it's turned out the last couple (of games). It's been like that my whole career, you just keep working hard, don't get down on yourself if it doesn't work out, and things will work out."
The Flames will take on the Canadiens tonight who are 1-1-0 so far this season. For the Habs, three players the Flames will need to focus on tonight will be Lars Eller, Brendan Gallagher, and Alex Galchenyuk who have been playing quite well for Montreal so far this season. Having scored the majority of the goals for the Habs this year, this young line will need to be shut down by the Flames, and Hartley believes he has the right guys to do so, especially Ben Street.
“He’s a two-way Street,” Hartley said. “He plays both sides of the puck very well. I can put him against best lineups on the other side. You look at what he did against the Sedins last game. He’s a little bit older than the rest of our centremen”
With a few key injuries to both teams, the Flames will continue to be without Mike Cammalleri and Matt Stajan, while the Habs will be without Alexei Emelin , Davis Drewiske , Douglas Murray, and enforcer George Parros.
Here are the projected lines for tonight’s game:
Flames
Glencross – Street - Jones
Galiardi - Backlund - Hudler
Baertschi - Monahan - Stempniak
Bouma - Colborne- McGrattan
Giordano- Brodie
Russell - Wideman
Butler - O’Brien
MacDonald
Montreal
Galchenyuk -.Eller - Gallagher
Bourque- Plekanec – Gionta
Pacioretty- Desharnais - Briere
Prust- Bournival - Moen
Markov - Diaz
Gorges - Subban
Tinordi - Bouillon
Price
As mentioned, it appears that Ben Street has earned the coaches respects and has moved up to the first line for the game tonight. With some uncertainty remaining down the middle, expect the centermen to continue to shift roles as Joe Colborne tries to work his way off the fourth line.
Despite the outcry of fans, Chris Butler remains on the roster for the Flames as he continues to struggle to find his play. I could only comment that it is all but likely that he plays himself off the roster sometime this season.
That’s all for today, thanks for reading!
Calgary Flames Blogger • 
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