Last night the Calgary Flames took on the Vancouver Canucks in the first half of a home-and-home and, despite controlling play from the word go, left the game empty handed.
The Flames out-attempted the Canucks by 63, outshot them by 33 and out-chanced them by 29 in what was a thoroughly dominant effort.
As has rarely been the case this season, goaltending was the difference for the wrong reasons. Ryan Miller stood on his head while Brian Elliott, well, did not.
Tonight the Flames will attempt to get those two points back and gain some separation from Vancouver, Los Angeles and some of the other teams right on their tail.
If they put forth another performance close to the one they had last night, they should have no problem doing just that.
Here are the expected line combinations for the Flames:
Matthew Tkachuk - Mikael Backlund - Michael Frolik Johnny Gaudreau - Sean Monahan - Alex Chiasson Kris Versteeg - Sam Bennett - Micheal Ferland Lance Bouma - Matt Stajan - Garnet Hathaway
Mark Giordano - Dougie Hamilton T.J. Brodie - Dennis Wideman Jyrki Jokipakka - Deryk Engelland
Chad Johnson
And the expected lines for the Canucks (via dailyfaceoff.com):
Daniel Sedin - Henrik Sedin - Jayson Megna Loui Eriksson - Brandon Sutter - Markus Granlund Sven Baertschi - Bo Horvat - Anton Rodin Brendan Gaunce - Michael Chaput - Jack Skille
Alex Edler - Troy Stecher Luca Sbisa - Chris Tanev Ben Hutton - Nikita Tryamkin
Ryan Miller
A few notes:
1) Chad Johnson had a spectacular start to the season but has really cooled off of late. Johnson has allowed 15 goals over his last four starts and posted a sub .900 save percentage in each of them. The Flames need a better effort from him tonight.
2) Backlund is as hot as anyone in hockey right now having tallied 11 points in his last six games. Can he keep it going tonight?
3) Monahan has points in just one of his last seven games, but there's reason to believe he could snap out of his slump soon. Monahan has 17 shots on goal in his last five and has had plenty of good looks. It's only a matter of time before he converts.
Tonight's game is scheduled for 10:00 eastern and can be seen on CBC and Sportsnet