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The Dallas Stars will be stepping into the Dome tonight to take on the Calgary Flames as they looked to extend their road record to a five game streak.
The Stars took to the ice last night against the Edmonton Oilers which they walked away with a 3-0 win. Calgary with a day off since playing the Sharks should be a little more energized and motivated compared to the Stars who were slotted for back to back road games.
That said, despite taking a point against the Sharks on Tuesday, the Flames weren’t exactly impressed with their commit level.
“We don’t want to be playing in games where our shot totals look like that."
“I don’t see any moral victory.”
Cammalleri who has been playing quite well of late( 8 goals in 11 games) made a promise to reporters yesterday saying that the team will “show up tomorrow and work as hard as we can over and over again”. It has certainly been nice to see that the players are truly buying into Hartley’s systems and work ethic, but they are certainly becoming a little disappointed with the lack of wins which have followed.
Trying to avoid a five game losing streak, Calgary will need to play a strong team game where blocked shots, playing the body, and cycling the puck down low are top priorities. By wearing down the opposition like this, opportunities to score will present themselves. A problem for the Flames of late has been keeping their shots on net down to a minimum. With that in mind, guys like recently acquired Ladislav Smid will have an important role keeping guys from the front of the net and trying to force the play to the corners.
Despite having a few fun games to watch on the ice, on paper the Flames are really starting to drop and it is starting to point to signs of negative trends for this roster if things do not improve. With specialty teams ranked 22nd and 28th for their PP and Pk, respectively, the Flames will need to focus a lot of attention on this particular stat which has caused them problems in recent games.
While they continue to experiment with goaltending which directly results in higher GAA, the team is currently allowing 3.5 goals per game which has them ranked 29th in the league. Having a strong goalie will evidently help to improve said stat, and I really can’t fault the team for not trying to help out their netminder as the Flames currently rank 3rd overall in blocked shots.
Another area of play that the Flames could really improve upon is their hits. Currently ranked 25th in the league in this department, a team which is shy of star power but are aiming to be a hard working team should have no problem increasing these numbers. While the team isn’t overly large, finishing their checks and working down the opposition should help them succeed beyond a few games.
With respect to tonight’s game, there are no expected line changes as Hartley has confirmed that Reto Berra will start in what will be his first back to back game of his career.
After a strong performance against the Sharks, Berra has looked quite sharp and should provide the Flames with a fighting chance to win some games if he can maintain his play.
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Moving away from the game discussion, I caught an article yesterday in the paper which suggested that the Tampa Bay Lighting could possibly have interest in Mike Cammalleri with Steven Stamkos expected to be out for so long.
Cammalleri will not be a player to step in and replace the production of Stamkos, although the thought is interesting given how well Mike has been playing and how likely the Bolts are going to need to replace his numbers somehow. Sitting first in the Atlantic and 6th overall, Tampa will surely not want to start falling as a result of losing Stamkos.
That said, there are not exactly a ton of options out there for forwards who can bury the puck which other teams would entertain moving. Despite wanting to compete and not creating a losing environment, Calgary’s main goal is toward their rebuild which includes moving older assets for youth and or picks. While not exactly “old”, Cammalleri is arguably the Flames biggest asset in terms of trade value at the moment, in spite of his rather large cap hit.
When considering a direct trade scenario between the Bolts and Flames, cap space will evidently be a problem as Tampa sits atop teams which limited space. That said, moving Stamkos to the LTIR will free up $7.5M which they could use in the duration of his absence. The tricky part will then be finding a way to keep Cammalleri beyond Stamkos’ injury and adding a salary of his magnitude will certainly present a challenge.
While this is all speculation at this point, could you see any interest from Tampa in acquiring Mike Cammalleri as an attempt to keep their strong play alive?
Thanks for reading!
Calgary Flames Blogger • 
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