Enjoying the weather?
Well prepare for a different type of flurry to pair with all of this snow.
A flurry of hockey.
The 32-14-6 Calgary Flames begin a gauntlet of seven games in eleven days tonight with a matchup against the suddenly-inspired 13-34-7 Montreal Canadiens in what will be a livelier game that one would expect.
Spurred by the hiring of former pee wee coach, Martin St. Louis; the Canadiens have won five of the last six.
This late season rally has included wins against Toronto, a team placed 5th in league standings as well as St. Louis— a team with an identical record to the Flames.
Tonight may not be the cake walk Flames fans expect.
That said, Calgary has lost one game in their last 13. They stand to break a franchise record for wins at home with a win tonight— and they’re coming off one of their best games of the season against a desperate Minnesota Wild squad.
Even more frightening is that the team seems to be improving still.
American industrialist, Henry Ford, once said:
“The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.…
There haven’t been a lot of real mistakes in the Flames’ on ice product in the past two months.
This sentiment seems to be present in the minds of the team. One has to wonder how far this team’s trajectory is with the quality of product they’re bringing to the ice every night. Reffing nightmares notwithstanding.
Gaudreau-Lindholm-Tkachuk Mangiapane-Backlund-Coleman Lucic-Monahan-Toffoli Lewis-Richardson-Ritchie
Hanifin-Andersson Kylington-Tanev Zadorov-Gudbranson
Markstrom
Something’s gotta give One has to wonder how long of a break Dillon Dube and Adam Ruzicka will end up getting. Many considered their removal from the lineup to be a a matter of pressing the spurs into the sides of two young players to get them playing more urgently.
After all, it was one loss that really wasn’t all on them. 7-1 result. Dube was on the ice for one goal against and Ruzicka zero goals against.
Too much time off can lead to some overthinking of the play when they return to the lineup. Will it take another loss to draw these guys in?
Something’s gotta give 2 Brad Treliving acquired 24 year old goaltender Michael McNiven on Wednesday afternoon and assigned the 6’1… Winnipeg native to Stockton. Trios don’t often vibe for teams as either one goaltender will be the odd man out in practice or two goaltenders will have to alternate reps in drills.
Dustin Wolf certainly won’t be giving up reps, so the question becomes:
What’s the situation with Stockton backup Adam Werner? He looked good enough in preseason to be a backup for a basement team. One could argue that he would be pushing Samuel Montembeault for a spot on the Canadiens.
Whether it is injury, inconsistent starts or something else, Werner has struggled to stay above a .900 save percentage this season in 14 games with Stockton.
Perhaps he is upset with the situation having expected a starting role if he lost out on backup with the big club.
Time will tell on both fronts.
Puck drop at 7:06 mst. Give or take.
Trevor Neufeld