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The Calgary Flames exited the all-star break the same way they went into it: with a win.
The Flames hosted the Western Conference leading Minnesota Wild on Wednesday night and controlled the game from the start en route to a 5-1 win.
A few notes:
1) The Wild have lost 17 times in 50 games. Of those 17 losses, three(!) of them have been to the Flames. That's very encouraging considering a) the Wild sit atop the West and; b) there's a decent chance if the Flames make the playoffs, they'll square off against the Wild.
Obviously, regular season records against a single opponent should be taken with a grain of salt considering injuries, back-to-backs (like last night for Minnesota), etc. all factor in, but the Flames now know they are fully capable of beating the Wild. They have the spotless record to show for it and some of their best performances have come against the Wild.
2) Imagine a world without Dennis Wideman in the top-4. Oh, what a world it will be. He was handing the Wild odd-man rushes on a silver platter last night and doing all he could to get them back in the game. On one play he bobbled the puck, fell over and the Wild went down and score. On another, he bobbled a perfect pass from Brodie and, you guessed it, the Wild ended up getting a good look on an odd-man rush.
Somehow, somehow, Wideman ended up playing more than Dougie Hamilton and Mark Giordano.
3) Don't look now but Brian Elliott has given the Flames not one, but two(!), quality starts in a row. He wasn't as busy as Devan Dubnyk at the other end but he still faced 29 shots, including several off odd-man rushes, and stopped 28 of them. Glen Gulutzan is going with the win and you're in system and, based on Elliott's play over the last couple games, I'd say that's a good thing.
4) I've been all over Troy Brouwer, and I think deservedly so, but he snapped his 10-game pointless streak last night and looked good alongside Sean Monahan and Johnny Gaudreau on the top unit. He made a nice pass setting up one goal, screened Dubnyk on another and stepped in for Matthew Tkachuk when he didn't like the way the rookie was being treated.
5) Remember when Monahan had a 10-game point streak earlier this season? Well, he's on another run like that right now. Monahan has scored eight times in his last nine games and has recorded at least three shots in nine of his last 10. I said when he was struggling if he shoots the puck the results will come and right now he's doing just that. This is very good news for the Flames because the Mikael Backlund line has slowed down a bit offensively of late.
Recent posts:
The best and worst from the Flames' season to date
On toughness, Brouwer, Monahan and a possible deadline target
Gaudreau leads Flames to OT win over Senators
Predicting the Pacific Division standings
Pacific Division bold predictions
Pacific Division breakout players
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