The Flames will face off against the Seattle Kraken in Kent, Washington tonight at 8pm. The lines haven’t been released, but here is the group heading there:
Milan Lucic Trevor Lewis Brett Ritchie Dillon Dube Byron Froese Glenn Gawdin Justin Kirkland Walker Duehr Adam Ruzicka Mathias Emilio Pettersen Ryan Francis Martin Pospisil
Connor Mackey Juuso Valimaki Nikita Zadorov Michael Stone Kevin Gravel Nick DeSimone Oliver Kylington
Dustin Wolf Vladar
Obviously a much younger group compared to last night and a few players on the back-to-back.
A few things to watch:
A big night for Valimaki Valimaki got his game going in the right direction against the Kraken on Wednesday. He needs to keep that pace up and focus on reading the play.
Ryan Francis gets his first look Francis looked dominant in the rookie games and this will be an interesting one. As a smaller player there are always questions about whether he will translate to the next level, but Francis does not play a small game. Expect him to work the boards with urgency and to drive the outside.
The Long Walk Walker Duehr has played in all four preseason games and has looked excellent. Here’s hoping he gets some power play time tonight. He’s got to be getting tired.
Enjoy the game tonight. Hopefully it’s as exciting as last night’s game. Speaking of:
The flames defeated the Vancouver Canucks last night 4-1 for their first preseason win. Here are some observations.
Gudbranson did gud Sutter deployed him carefully and he had a decent night. He gave resident Canucks enforcer, Zach McEwen, a massive beat down after MacEwen went looking for a fight with Connor Mackey following the rookie landing a solid check on him. MacEwen received a penalty earlier in the game for connecting a shoulder to Markstrom’s head. Gudbranson sent a message and those moments are important for morale. Gudbranson received an instigator penalty and it was a glorious moment in preseason hockey.
Zadorov threw a massive hit Zadorov completely blew up Jason Dickinson in the second. To the point where Luke Schenn just gave up on the play and Backlund ripped one by Demko while MacEwen and Schenn converged on Zadorov. Sutter Hockey.
Tkachuk-Lindholm-Gaudreau looked like a legitimate first line Coleman drew out of the lineup and Mathias Emilio Pettersen took his place on the roster. What resulted was Johnny rotating between this line and the Richardson-Mangiapane line. The three were ripping cross ice passes to each other all night and ended the game with five points between them.
Given the chaos with the lines, we’ll review a few pairings as well as a few individual players.
Tkachuk-Lindholm Tkachuk and Lindholm played mostly together last night. They were working the puck hard and Johnny’s shot total is largely due to their hard work.
Gaudreau Gaudreau was deadly last night. Tkachuk and Lindholm made a beautiful play to set Gaudreau up for the Flames first goal. Those three in tandem are still my vote for first line to start the season. Gaudreau has a whopping seven shots on goal and ended the game with a goal and an assist.
Richardson To the surprise of almost anyone familiar with Brad Richardson — the guy had a great game last night. He had chemistry with Gaudreau and Mangiapane. He disrupted the play on the PK. The guy gets an B-. The blemish to his game was that he was 29% in the face off dot.
Dube Quiet game for Dube, but he didn’t stick out as a defensive liability. That is enough to keep him in Sutter’s good books.
Backlund Backlund continued his hot preseason with a snipe from the top of the slot during the Zadorov chaos. His skating has looked great and it looks like he’ll be shooting more this season.
Ritchie Brett Ritchie hit a post with the goalie pulled and everyone in the dome felt it. Fortunately he got an empty netter on the next play.
Mangiapane Eat Bread had another hard working night. He led the Flames in takeaways with two and potted an assist on Brett Ritchie’s empty net goal by getting the puck to him from the red line.
Kirkland-Froese These two have been quietly putting their work in this preseason. They held the Canucks off the scoresheet when they were on the ice which is what you hope for in a fourth line. That said, Froese took a bad tripping penalty in the second and Darryl did not look impressed.
Pettersen Pettersen spent most of the game stapled to the center of the player’s box. He played well enough in the few shifts he got, but I was expecting more from the Norwegian prospect.
Duehr Duehr was as deadly as ever. His North-South game reminds me of peak Sean Donavan but with more of a mean streak. He was keeping the Canucks blue line on their toes with some hard rushes to the outside.
Zadorov-Andersson Andersson quietly led all Flames players in ice time with 24:21. The next closest was Oliver Kylington with 19:14. This was primarily due to Andersson being the only defenseman on the first powerplay unit. That unit was producing chances by working the puck down low, so Andersson didn’t get a touch on any of the Flames’ solitary powerplay goal.
Kylington-Tanev Tanev played another solid, quiet game. Just what you want from him. Kylington kept his upward trajectory playing the quarterback on the second powerplay unit. He led all Flames players in short handed time on the ice with 3:38.
Mackey-Gudbranson Mackey set up Tkachuk’s goal by walking the puck down the left side of the offensive zone and sending it out front. He also laid out Zach MacEwen late in the third. Overall a very solid night for Connor Mackey. Gudbranson held his own defensively and threw a few nice hits. He also beat the sap out of Zach MacEwen.
Markstrom-Wolf Both played very well last night. Wolf showed excellent mobility and Markstrom brought his same consistent goaltending. Neither were required to stand on their head.
Thanks for reading,
Trevor Neufeld