Five things to watch when the Calgary Flames take on the Columbus Blue Jackets:
1. Columbus' top line The Artemi Panarin, Pierre-Luc Dubois, Cam Atkinson trio doesn't garner a ton of headlines, which should probably change. At 5v5, they rank 3rd in on-ice goals for with 19. The two ahead of them? Nathan MacKinnon's line and John Tavares' line. What's interesting, though, is Columbus' top line is on for 4.46 goals per 60 minutes played while the other two units mentioned sit at 4.0 or less. Among 21 lines with 170+ minutes together, none have scored at a higher clip than Panarin - Dubois - Atkinson. Suffice to say, they can fill the net.
With the Blue Jackets at home, they'll control the matchups. That means the top line is unlikely to see much of Mikael Backlund, Matthew Tkachuk, and Calgary's top defensive players. We'll see if they can take advantage.
2. Rittich rebounding David Rittich has posted a sub .910 save percentage four times this season, with the most recent coming in his last appearance. The previous three times he bounced back with save percentages of .966, 1.000, and .925. Excellent numbers, to say the least.
The Flames will be hoping for more of the same against a red-hot Blue Jackets team that has found the back of the net 38 times over the last 10 games.
3. Attacking on the PK The Flames have scored more shorthanded goals than all but the Coyotes and Golden Knights, with the latter having totaled fewer expected goals. They like to be aggressive, clearly, and that could pay off against a Blue Jackets team that sits tied for 6th in shorthanded goals against.
4. Something to build on Last time out James Neal posted spectacular on-ice numbers, Andrew Mangiapane created a couple excellent looks, and Derek Ryan picked up his sixth point in eight games. It was one of the better performances we've seen from the 3rd line all season long. They all contributed and seemed to mesh nicely. It'll be interesting to see if they can duplicate that effort against an above average group of bottom-6 forwards.
5. Calgary's PP vs Columbus' PK The Flames have scored at least one power play marker in 12 of their last 16 and have potted 14 goals in that span. They're scorching hot, to say the least.
Over the same time period, the Blue Jackets have been extremely stout while killing penalties ranking 2nd in chances against/60 and 6th in goals against/60. The Blue Jackets don't take many penalties, either, so the Flames likely need to win the 5v5 battle if they want to come out on top.
Here are the projected lineups:
Calgary
Johnny Gaudreau - Sean Monahan - Elias Lindholm Matthew Tkachuk - Mikael Backlund - Sam Bennett Andrew Mangiapane - Derek Ryan - James Neal Austin Czarnik - Mark Jankowski - Garnet Hathaway
Mark Giordano - T.J. Brodie Noah Hanifin - Travis Hamonic Oliver Kylington/Dalton Prout - Rasmus Andersson
David Rittich
Columbus (via dailyfaceoff.com)
Artemi Panarin - Pierre-Luc Dubois - Cam Atkinson Nick Foligno - Boone Jenner - Josh Anderson Brandon Dubinsky - Alex Wennberg - Oliver Bjorkstrand Lukas Sedlak - Riley Nash - Markus Hannikainen
Zach Werenski - Seth Jones Ryan Murray - Markus Nutivaara Scott Harrington - David Savard
Sergei Bobrovsky
Puck drop is just after 7:00 eastern and can be seen on SNW and FS-O.
Numbers via NaturalStatTrick.com and Corsica.Hockey
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