After a surprisingly thrilling 1-0 OT loss to the suddenly confident Buffalo Sabres, the Calgary Flames finish out their home-and-away back-to-back tonight against the 30-25-7 Vancouver Canucks.
These two teams have a few things in common heading into this game.
Both have been bringing a very solid product of late. Taking in a few Canucks games this week, their tempo has been at around the same pace as the Flames. This can be highlighted by both teams recording matching 6-3 wins over the New Jersey Devils.
Even more strange is that both teams are coming off 1-0 losses to bottom ten squads. Calgary lost 1-0 to the Buffalo Sabres last night off a misplay by Jacob Markstrom. Vancouver’s first unit were on the ice for the only goal against in the second period of a surprise 1-0 loss to the lowly Detroit Red Wings.
Both teams hungry for a rebound? Check. Calgary likely still bitter about being embarrassed 7-1 when both teams last met? Check. Is one of the teams considering this game a near must-win? Check.
It’s going to be a fun second half of Hockey Night in Canada tonight.
Gaudreau-Lindholm-Toffoli Dube-Backlund-Tkachuk Coleman-Jarnkrok-Mangiapane Lucic-Monahan-Lewis
Hanifin-Anderson Kylington-Tanev Zadorov-Gudbranson
Vladar
Who would have thought The NHL’s most dominant unit has been broken up. Toffoli has been that good. Then Dube-Backlund-Tkachuk? Wow. Interesting to see Tkachuk kept on the RW en lieu of his natural LW. Wild shakeup by Mr. Sutter. Can’t wait to see how it goes.
Taking advantage Provided that the refs can bring a more consistent product in this meeting, the Flames need only draw their share of penalties to gain a sizeable advantage of this game. Take a look at the tale of the tape courtesy of nhl.com and see if anything stands out on the Canuck side.
No team makes the playoffs with a 32nd ranked penalty kill.
Several Canucks players can make the difference in this game in a positive way. JT Miller has running at two points a game in his last five, Elias Pettersen has shown he can win a game on the powerplay, Thatcher Demko can steal a game on any given night.
But guys like Tyler Myers, Kyle Burroughs, Luke Schenn or even JT Miller himself can throw this game if they cross the line even just a bit too often.
Onus for the Flames needs to be on making the Canucks mad, but not go so far as to convince the refs that Vancouver is being physically dominated.
And again, Gord Dwyer won’t be reffing tonight. So expect a PIM ratio less skewed than 34-2 in the home team’s direction.
Calle of the Wild If yesterday’s effort was any indication of recent acquisition Calle Jarnkrok’s will to impress his new team; expect this guy to score tonight. He almost put the game away yesterday and looked dangerous every time he carried the puck.
His faceoffs were pretty good too. He finished the night 54% on 23 draws. 67% in the offensive zone. His 25% (1/4) in the defensive zone was the single blemish on a very strong performance in his first game as a Calgary Flame.
Seanny Faceoff Sean Monahan might be carving out a niche. Every other Flames center got eaten alive last night by faceoff specialist Cody Eakin. Lindholm went 2/10, Jarnkrok 1/4, Sutter kept Backlund away from Eakin entirely.
Sean Monahan went 3/3 against Eakin. Then 2/3 against Jeff Skinner. He finished the night 83% in the dot.
Protecting out front A look at the shot charts last night across all situations tells a story.
Pretty sparkling. Aside from the most dangerous area of the ice and the top of the left circle.
The Flames have one if the meaner blue lines, but perhaps the six need a reminding of their responsibilities in front of the net. Life needs to be miserable for the opposition in that area.
Let’s show the Devils game.
And Colorado.
Top of the left circle and directly in front.
Let’s look at the Canucks’ 6-3 win over the Devils on Tuesday.
Three goals from that same area. If the Flames can’t control their rebounds and keep shooters out of that zone: big trouble.
@Trevor_Neufeld