Who wants to see the 22-23 Flames group put through yet another test of character?
No one? Well too bad. The Flames will be allowed to even the score with two Eastern Conference teams in the next three days.
Tonight’s affair involves potentially evening up the season series against the Detroit Red Wings. A team that pulled the carpet out from under the Flames only seven days ago with a 2-1 victory.
What went wrong in round one?
Depth Mistakes You don’t want to put an entire loss on a small handful of players. The top six got nothing past Detroit goaltender Ville Husso, the power play only generated four shots with six minutes, and goaltender Daniel Vladar finished the game uncharacteristically below .900 (.882) in save percentage.
That said, Trevor Lewis blew his coverage on the first goal against. As did Adam Ruzicka on the second goal against. Ruzicka has been stuck eating popcorn in the press box since that game.
Michael Stone looked rough as well on the game-winning goal. It seems unlikely that the 32-year-old is playing at 100% health.
That brings up two points.
Good News Rasmus Andersson likely makes his return to the lineup after being struck by a vehicle on February 8 in Detroit. The decision has been left to his discretion. It will be interesting to see how he looks on the ice if he plays. The Flames have been 1-1-1 in his absence.
The Red Wings, on the other hand, have been 4-0-0 since Rasmus Andersson was hit by a car. We’ll get to that in a minute.
Bad News It appears Dennis Gilbert is the odd man out with Rasmus’ return. It’s a shame. Gilbert put up decent possession stats against Ottawa, 63.13CF%, and more importantly didn’t make any dire mistakes defensively.
Michael Stone brings a heavy right-handed shot, but Gilbert’s game seems to be blossoming. He’s big, fast, responsible with the puck — and mean. Stone has only two of those four characteristics.
Vlademption Daniel Vladar gets the start tonight. The fanbase, the media, and surely the organization are frustrated with the results of Jacob Markstrom’s starts this campaign.
The 33-year-old Markstrom has 14 wins in 36 games this season. His backup has 11 wins in half as many starts.
Larkin’ It Up We mentioned the 4-0-0 record of the Red Wings in the last seven days. They played Vancouver twice, Edmonton once, and Calgary once.
Let’s look at the bottom of the league’s penalty kill stats since the 9th.
The freshly hired Canucks head coach pointed out that Vancouver needs to rebuild some defensive habits from scratch. Both 5-1 losses to the Red Wings involved Detroit taking advantage of open passing lanes through the slot. If you want more info on that, head over to the Canucks piece I wrote a few days ago.
Edmonton is also having some serious issues with killing penalties. Let’s just take a moment to address the team up North before we get back to Larkin and the Wings.
The Edmonton Oilers — An Interlude Are there any other Flames fans salivating at the idea of Ken Holland paying multiple first-round picks to acquire a slightly retained Erik Karlsson?
The amount of Oilers fans circling his point production this season with red marker while repeating sentiments about “moving the puck… has been hilarious. He’s turning 33 in March, he’s having his first reasonably healthy season in four years, and he’ll likely be an 8-9.5 million dollar cap hit for four seasons after this one.
Say they give up a first in 2023 and 2024, Tyson Barrie, Jesse Puljujarvi, and Carter Savoie for an 11.5 million dollar Karlsson retained down to 9 million per season. What are the odds Karlsson makes it through two rounds without one of his old injuries taking over? What happens the season after a deep push? Even younger players like Nurse, Draisatl, and Yamamoto have shown what going three rounds deep can do to your body. What happens when there are four more seasons on 30-point Karlsson at 9 million?
It’s likely not a deal that happens. Making the cap work, setting precedent on multi-year salary retention, and selling it to the fanbase seems like too much of a challenge. It sure would be great to see though.
Larkin’ It Up With that said, the Red Wings have built confidence leading up to today’s game. Dylan Larkin has been building up a case to earn more on his upcoming contract extension by feeding on the Oilers, Canucks, and Flames. Six goals and eight points in his last four games. Four of those goals and six of those points came on the power play.
In other words, Calgary is going to have to stay out of the box. They’ve led the league in penalties-in-minutes through February — 71 in four games.
Tired Opposition The ray of hope here is that Detroit’s offence will likely be sluggish. They played an 8:00 pm game in Vancouver last night.
Offence can be hard to find when you’re fatigued. Case in point: Tampa Bay got shut out last night against the Coyotes. They played the Avalanche the night before.
Calgary Flames Projected Lineup Waiting on confirmation. Gilbert and Mackey skated late after morning practice. Ruzicka may draw back in still.
Dube-Lindholm-Toffoli Pelletier-Kadri-Huberdeau Mangiapane-Backlund-Coleman Lucic-Lewis-Ritchie
Hanifin-Andersson Weegar-Tanev Zadorov-Stone
Vladar Markstrom
Detroit Red Wings Projected Lineup Last night’s lines. Husso started against Vancouver, so it’s likely Hellberg starts.
Bertuzzi – Larkin – Kubalik Rasmussen – Copp – Fabbri Berggren – Veleno – Perron Zadina – Suter – Sundqvist
Chiarot – Seider Maatta – Hronek Hagg – Lindstrom
Hellberg Husso
Game time is 7:07 pm MST. Catch the broadcast on Sportsnet West and Bally Sports Detroit.
Trevor Neufeld
@Trevor_Neufeld
Stats via naturalstattrick.com, nhl.com, and capfriendly.com.