Heading into Wednesday night's game the Calgary Flames felt on top of the world.
They entered play on a six-game winning streak and were on an 8-1-1 run despite being outshot and out-chanced more often than not. Then, they came crashing back to reality in a hurry as they were smacked around pretty good by a Tampa Bay Lightning team that was without two of their star players in Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov.
Tonight the Flames will be looking to get back on track against the surprising Columbus Blue Jackets.
Heading into the season many, myself included, figured the Blue Jackets would be a non-playoff team. Some even thought they'd contend for the 1st overall pick.
Fast forward a couple months and the Blue Jackets own an incredible 18-5-4 record and have a plus-33 goal differential to go with it.
They have a very deep, skilled forward crop that has filled the net with regularity and a stable defense led by Zach Werenski, Seth Jones and the re-emergence of Jack Johnson.
Add in that Sergei Bobrovsky has returned to his Vezina-caliber form and it's not hard to see why the Blue Jackets are piling up the wins.
This game will be a good test to see just how far the Flames have come since their early season struggles - and how much further they need to go.
Here are the expected line combinations for the Flames:
Matthew Tkachuk - Mikael Backlund - Michael Frolik Johnny Gaudreau - Sam Bennett - Alex Chiasson Kris Versteeg - Sean Monahan - Troy Brouwer Micheal Ferland - Matt Stajan - Lance Bouma
Mark Giordano - Dougie Hamilton T.J. Brodie - Dennis Wideman Jyrki Jokipakka - Deryk Engelland
Chad Johnson
And the expected lines for the Blue Jackets (via dailyfaceoff.com):
Brandon Saad - Alexander Wennberg - Nick Foligno Boone Jenner - Brandon Dubinsky - Cam Atkinson Scott Hartnell - William Karlsson - Josh Anderson Matt Calvert - Lukas Sedlak - Sam Gagner
Zach Werenski - Seth Jones Jack Johnson - David Savard Markus Nutivaara - Ryan Murray
Sergei Bobrovsky
A few notes:
1) Over the last 10 games, the Flames are 26th in scoring chance suppression while the Blue Jackets are 4th in scoring chance generation. If the Flames don't tighten things up they will be exposed like they were against the Bolts.
2) Columbus has the best PP conversion rate in the league at 25.6%. Their puck movement while a man up has been incredible all year (Wennberg and Gagner, in particular, have been awesome with their passing) and they have plenty of capable finishers. Discipline is always important but especially so tonight. I'm looking at you, Sam Bennett (he has actually not taken many penalties of late).
3) Sean Monahan is on an eight-game point streak and has been shooting the puck with more regularity of late. Will that continue tonight?
Tonight's game is scheduled for 9:00 eastern and can be seen on SNW and FS-O.
Recent posts: Flames blown out by Bolts, winning streak snapped at six