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On opening night the Calgary Flames were handed their hat by the Edmonton Oilers.
They did have a couple good stretches throughout but they fell behind the 8-ball early and never really seemed to recover. When they did make a good push and tied things up, thanks to a pair of short-handed goals, they conceded two more goals immediately after, in part due to a poor penalty shot call, and ultimately got the result they deserved with a 7-4 loss.
Tonight the Flames are on home soil and will be looking to return the favor to the Oilers.
As you'd expect there will be some lineup changes following such a poor loss. Most notably defenseman Nicklas Grossman, whose turnovers led directly to Edmonton's first two goals, will find himself watching from the press box. Taking Grossman's spot in the lineup will be Jyrki Jokipakka.
No other healthy scratch from the opener will draw in but there are a few lineup changes as they completely altered the defense pairings.
Here is a look at the line combos Glen Gulutzan will go with tonight:
Johnny Gaudreau - Sean Monahan - Kris Versteeg
Matthew Tkachuk - Sam Bennett - Troy Brouwer
Micheal Ferland - Mikael Backlund - Michael Frolik
Lance Bouma - Matt Stajan - Alex Chiasson
Mark Giordano - T.J. Brodie
Dougie Hamilton - Jyrki Jokipakka
Dennis Wideman - Deryk Engelland
Brian Elliott
And what they will go up against:
Milan Lucic - Connor McDavid - Jordan Eberle
Benoit Pouliot - Ryan Nugent-Hopkins - Zack Kassian
Patrick Maroon - Leon Draisaitl - Jesse Puljujarvi
Tyler Pitlick - Mark Letestu - Anton Slepyshev
Oscar Klefbom - Adam Larsson
Andrej Sekera - Kris Russell
Darnell Nurse - Mark Fayne
Cam Talbot
A few notes:
1) In the season debut Giordano/Brodie/Hamilton were put on three different pairings in effort to balance the defense. It did not work as lesser players were given more minutes than they otherwise would get and were exposed. Glen Gulutzan has smartly gone back to loading up the top-4 and I expect the defense to be much better tonight as a result.
2) Tkachuk plays with an edge, which is one of the many reasons Calgary drafted him, but he definitely was pushing it in the season opener as he laid questionable hits on Russell and Brandon Davidson. The Oilers might be after him tonight so it'll be key for him to not let emotions get the best of him and stick to playing hockey. The Flames don't need him taking any bad penalties nor fighting guys 10 years older and 25 pounds heavier.
3) Elliott's debut as a Flame was disastrous. The defense certainly didn't do him any favors but he didn't bail them out at all and that's what he is paid to do. He needs to be better tonight.
Tonight's game is schedule for 9 pm eastern and can be seen on Sportsnet One and Sportsnet 360.
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