After a day off to recuperate after a 3-2 overtime loss to the LA Kings, the 40-18-9 Calgary Flames (89 points) faceoff against the 37-20-10 St. Louis Blues (84 points).
The Blues are finishing off an Alberta back-to-back tonight after falling just short of coming back from a first period that ended 4-1 Oilers. The game ended 6-5 in overtime off a goal by Connor McDavid, but make no mistake; the Blues have their game in order.
A few trains of thought on tonight’s game, but first let’s address the news.
Sean Monahan It was announced today that the 27 year old former first line center will undergo surgery on his hip. This time it’s the right hip. With any luck, this will solve his ailing hip issues as Sean says his left is feeling great after last offseason’s surgery.
This operation will be Monahan’s seventh surgery in four years. The Bionic Mon. You heard it here first.
The timeline for recovery is around four months.
It deserves recognition: his last 18 games he’s struggled to produce offence. Only two points over that span. The 47 games before that he produced 21 points. Not horrible for a guy playing fourth line minutes — even if 13 of those points were from the powerplay.
And hey, you try being 53.15% over 779 faceoffs with your left hip needing surgery. That percentage is a career high for Sean over a season. It seemed Sean was either 75% or 33% on any given night. Hopefully the surgery gets him back to 100%
The questions here:
Have we seen Sean Monahan play his last game as a Flame?
He made a nice play on the Flames second goal. If that was the last time we see Sean in a Flames jersey — it feels like that game was a microcosm of his last few years. Pushing himself to the bitter end in order to help the Flames in any way he could. He helped get the Flames a point on Thursday.
The other question.
Is management willing to gamble on Monahan’s health this offseason?
The Flames have tough decisions to make in order to get Matthew Tkachuk, Andrew Mangiapane, Johnny Gaudreau, Oliver Kylington, and hopefully Erik Gudbranson under contract for next season. That cap isn’t going to come out of nowhere.
Is it worth it for the Flames to take a risk in keeping Monahan around? Milan Lucic hasn’t been perfect, but he does have an NMC in his contract. Something will have to give.
Oliver Kylington Another injury out of Thursday’s game against the Kings. 45:54 into the game, Kylington made his way off the ice after a rough collision into the boards while battling for the puck with 22 year old Kings right winger Rasmus Kupari. Oliver has had a nasty habit of taking spills like that this season. It was just a matter of time before one of them injured him.
The 24 year old defenseman was absent from a game against the Detroit Red Wings on March 12. A knee issue was mentioned as the reason. Kylington also took a bad spill into the boards and left the game in the third period of a 7-3 win over the Minnesota Wild on February 26.
Oliver has 27 points, including eight goals, in 64 games this season.
With him absent, Stockton defenceman Connor Mackey has been called up. The 25 year old has five goals and 31 assists for 36 points in 53 AHL games this season.
The product of Tower Lakes, Illinois will have to adjust his game for the NHL level. He has three minor penalties in the last two games — two of them being sticking penalties in the third period. Head coach Darryl Sutter won’t put up with that habit for long.
Mackey has 83 penalty minutes over 53 outings this campaign.
Yesterday’s practice lines courtesy of Pat Steinberg. @Fan960Steinberg
Gaudreau-Lindholm-Tkachuk Mangiapane-Backlund-Toffoli Dube-Jarnkrok-Coleman Lucic-Carpenter-Lewis
Hanifin-Andersson Stone-Tanev Zadorov-Gudbranson
Markstrom Vladar
Contentious Practice Fellow Flames Erik Gudbranson and Blake Coleman got into a pushing match during battle drills yesterday. A good sign after the lack of fire most of the roster showed in Thursday’s game. It should be noted that Gudbranson was one of the few Flames playing sharp hockey in the overtime loss.
A Tale of Two Blues Earlier a Blues comeback from a 4-1 first period lead was mentioned. What kicked off this rally? Take a look at these two stat lines and make a guess.
That’s right. The Blues still have that problem.
Fans may remember the first meeting between the Flames and Blues. A 7-1 beat down of the Blues. Guess who started in net and got chased?
Stanley Cup winning starter, Jordan Binnington.
The Blues seem to play like a contender with backup Ville Husso and a basement team with Binnington. In the next meeting between tonight’s contestants, the Blues won 5-1 over the Flames with Husso posting a .966 save percentage over 29 shots against.
Solid odds on Husso starting tonight, but he did play two periods last night. It will be interesting to see if fatigue shows in both himself and the team in front of him.
The cherry on top of the Blues situation is that Binnington is in year one of a six year 36 million dollar contract. An identical contract to Jacob Markstrom’s.
Keys Missing The Blues are missing some important players this week. Take a look at the injury report courtesy of dailyfaceoff.com.
Kyrou’s offence will be sorely missed. 62 points in 61 games. Only 15 of those points from the powerplay. Jordan is a walking definition of secondary scoring.
The St. Louis Blues also direly miss Torey Krug’s impact on defence. was on the ice for a whopping five goals against last night. That top four clearly has a weak link. Particularly when Faulk and Marco Scandella are on the ice at the same time. Keep an eye out for #72 Faulk and #6 Scandella.
Enough reading. Enjoy your Saturday!
Trevor Neufeld
Graphics and stats courtesy of naturalstattrick.com and nhl.com.
@Trevor_Neufeld