The Calgary Flames find themselves in a precarious position tonight as they face off against a very strong Carolina Hurricanes team that are fresh off a loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday.
Losing to a middling team with questionable goaltending can often bring out the best in a group in the following game. The Hurricanes have a road trip to salvage here — and it starts with doing they’re best to bring down one of the league’s stronger groups in the Calgary Flames.
Records Entering Tonight’s Game Calgary: 3-1-0 Carolina: 3-1-0
Projected lineup courtesy of Pat Steinberg. @Fan960Steinberg
Huberdeau-Lindholm-Toffoli Dube-Kadri-Mangiapane Coleman-Backlund-Lewis Lucic-Rooney-Ritchie Weegar-Tanev Hanifin-Andersson Zadorov-Stone
Markstrom
Bug Based on the play of a few Flames players, an illness may still be circulating the dressing room. Elias Lindholm doesn’t get out attempted at a 22.58% rate with no explanation. Combine that with a very strong opposition looking to bounce back and we may have a rough game ahead of us.
Speaking Of The original confirmed sick roster player, Jacob Markstrom, will start tonight. He was pulled against the Sabres on Thursday after allowing three goals on twelve shots. Two of those goals were glove side.
Defensive Statement Last season the Flames finished third for least goals allowed. They concluded the season with 206 goals against and 2.51 goals against per game..
The first in that category? The Carolina Hurricanes with 200 and 2.44 goals against per game.
They’re at it again, currently sitting in 5th with 2.25 goals against per game. Calgary, on the other hand sits 24th with 3.50 goals against per game. The Flames have work to do in that area and tonight they’ll need to improve on that marker. Three or four goals against will likely spell a death sentence.
Puck drop is around 8:10pm mst.
Trevor Neufeld
@Trevor_Neufeld
Stats via nhl.com.