The common theme tonight will be “bouncing back… as two teams, the 30-14-6 Calgary Flames and the 31-15-3 Minnesota Wild are both coming off games they would rather forget.
If you want to read about the 7-1 loss to the Canucks that the Flames experienced on Thursday night: go ahead and read the piece titled “Six Chickens and a Tambourine… linked at the bottom of the page. Without going into too much detail, the refs had a tough game and the Flames penalty kill did too.
The positives to draw from that game were that the Flames out-chanced Vancouver at 5v5 and scored late off a nice effort from Andrew Mangiapane.
The Minnesota Wild are in a slightly different situation. They’ve had a rough Canadian road trip going 1-2-0. They have lost four of their last five games and have only 12 goals over that span. Their only win has been a 7-3 thumping of the defensively inadequate Edmonton Oilers.
For a team with the third highest ranked offence (3.74GF/GP) in the NHL, 2.4GF/GP in their last five certainly indicates that their offence is sputtering.
A problem given the rest of their team stats are below average.
If the Wild can’t go blow for blow in terms of goals, they don’t stand a good chance to win on any given night.
The Flames, meanwhile, have 42 goals over their last ten games (4.2GF/GP) and 18 in their last five(3.6GF/GP).
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Sandpaper injection Brad Richardson returns to the lineup after a 14 game break. That’s 40 days for those wondering. Nick Ritchie also draws in after five games off— 14 days.
It didn’t feel good seeing Ritchie draw out of the lineup when Toffoli was acquired from the Montreal Canadiens. While he hadn’t found any offence over 24 games in the 21-22 campaign, he was showing good puck battling skills in his last few games.
Against the Islanders he posted a 70.59CF%. During that game he was on the ice for 6 scoring chances and one chance against at 5v5. Against the Leafs he did worse in shot attempts posting a 45.45CF%, but his line was 4-0 in high danger scoring chances.
Cryptic statistic aside, he was starting to consistently pull off stick lifts that disrupted plays from getting started. He looked like a frustrating winger to battle against along the boards.
A frustrating winger along the boards is much better than a frustrated winger in the player’s box. Here’s hoping he finds his way onto the scoresheet tonight.
A game off Many would agree Dillon Dube was due for a night off. He gained traction in a back-to-back on Feb 15-16 with a goal against both the Blue Jackets and the Ducks, but had gone quiet the last three games. He took a high sticking penalty last game, but who didn’t get a penalty in that game? Other than 23/24 Canucks that is. He did mess up his coverage on one of Vancouver’s three powerplay goals.
Maybe some popcorn will do him well.
Ruzicka is a little more of a head scratcher. He played a season low 8:03 but maintained a 56% mark on faceoffs. He wasn’t on for a goal against and didn’t take a bad penalty.
It may be that he simply isn’t playing as sharp as he has at other points in the season. He hasn’t recorded a point four games. Also, Richardson needs to shake the rust from time to time.
Return of the Bot Cam Talbot makes his first appearance at the in two two years. The former Flames goaltender has carved out a nice spot for himself with the Wild. He’s 38-19-6 over parts of two seasons and has a .910 save percentage to go along with a 2.94GAA this season. Good to see he’s doing well.
Puck drop is about eight minutes after 8pm MST.
Trevor Neufeld