Five things to watch when the Calgary Flames take on the Chicago Blackhawks:
1. Lineup de-optimization In effort to shake things up, and/or send a message, the Blackhawks have made some lineup changes. Most notably, Brandon Saad has been demoted to the 4th line alongside Ryan Hartman and Patrick Sharp.
This is good news for the Flames as Saad's been Chicago's best chance generator while Hartman isn't far behind slotting in 3rd on the team in 5v5 chances/60. They shouldn't be seeing limited ice.
2. The power play The Flames' altered power play units didn't get much of a chance to showcase themselves as they had just one opportunity vs Chicago on Saturday night.
While they didn't score, they were credited with five scoring chances (two-high-danger), according to NaturalStatTrick.
The Blackhawks are a disciplined team, and have a strong penalty differential, but I'm assuming they'll end up taking more than one penalty tonight. We should get a better handle on how much of a difference the changes will make.
3. Mike Smith For the first time this season, Smith has allowed three goals or more in three consecutive starts and he's given up 12 total during that span.
Is this a sign Smith is wearing down or does it have more to do with facing the likes of Tampa Bay, Vegas, and Chicago?
Smith was strong for 58 minutes against Vegas so I'm inclined to lean towards the latter but it's entirely possible the massive workload is starting to catch up with him.
4. Mark Jankowski's return I didn't like the decision to sit Jankowski in that other Calgary players have been worse, however, I do agree with Glen Gulutzan's assessment that Jankowski's game has tailed off.
In his first 32 games with the team, he generated 12 points and 64 scoring chances at 5v5.
In 11 games prior to being scratched, he registered just one point and 16 scoring chances.
Perhaps a night off to hit the reset button will be good for him.
5. The matchup game Joel Quenneville generally uses the Jonathan Toews line to match up against opposing team's best offensive units but he may have to rethink that tonight. Why? If Toews squares off against Sean Monahan's unit, Quenneville will be feeding Patrick Kane, one of the most dynamic offensive players in the league, to an elite defensive trio in the 3M line.
I think he'll end up using Toews vs 3M and Monahan vs Kane, which worked out fairly well in Calgary's favor on Saturday night.
Here are the projected lineups:
Calgary
Johnny Gaudreau - Sean Monahan - Micheal Ferland Matthew Tkachuk - Mikael Backlund - Michael Frolik Sam Bennett - Mark Jankowski - Troy Brouwer Curtis Lazar - Matt Stajan - Garnet Hathaway
Mark Giordano - Dougie Hamilton T.J. Brodie - Travis Hamonic Brett Kulak - Michael Stone
Mike Smith
Chicago Blackhawks (via DailyFaceoff.com)
Alex DeBrincat - Jonathan Toews - Anthony Duclair Artem Anisimov - Nick Schmaltz - Patrick Kane Vince Hinostroza - David Kampf - Tomas Jurco Patrick Sharp - Ryan Hartman - Brandon Saad
Duncan Keith - Jordan Oesterle Erik Gustafsson - Brent Seabrook Michal Kempny - Jan Rutta
Jeff Glass
Puck drop is just after 8:30 eastern and can be seen on SNW and NBCSCH.