Five things to watch for when the Calgary Flames take on the Anaheim Ducks:
1. Discipline issues If you like watching special teams – how could you not with the way the Flames have played this year?!? – then this is the game for you.
The Ducks rank 4th in the league in penalties taken and have a league-worst -58 differential.
While the Flames have a plus-3 differential, they have actually taken more penalties than the Ducks as they rank 3rd in that category.
Games between these sides tend to get heated, and the Flames will surely be frustrated by missing the playoffs, so I'd expect a lot of special teams action in this one.
Get ready for some #BrouwerPlays.
2. Goaltending This game features a pair of goaltenders trending in completely different directions.
Since January 30th – that's an arbitrary cut off, I know – Mike Smith ranks 37th among 39 eligible goaltenders with an .884 save percentage.
During that same span, John Gibson ranks 1st with a ridiculous .940 save percentage.
Smith's season, like Calgary's, is falling apart while Gibson is playing his way into the Vezina conversation. One would think the Ducks have the edge in goal tonight.
3. A potential mismatch Calgary's shutdown line has not been nearly as good, defensively or otherwise, without Matthew Tkachuk on it. We're not dealing with a massive sample size here but the 2M + Troy Brouwer line is allowing 70.83 shot attempts against/60 and they're expected to score 45.98% of the goals. For comparison, the 3M line allowed 48.05 shot attempts/60 and were expected to score 58% of the goals.
Tonight they'll likely be tasked with slowing down a Ducks top line that features players scoring at 92, 75, and 57 point paces over 82 games. It could be a tough night.
4. Dougie Hamilton's shooting The man known as Douglas Hamilton IV is never shy about pulling the trigger but he's taken it up a notch of late. He has tallied 34 shot attempts over the last three games, which is absolutely ludicrous. He's shooting from anywhere and everywhere right now.
5. An underrated sniper One under-the-radar player to watch tonight is Ondrej Kase. He doesn't play a ton of minutes but he's very efficient with what he does get.
Kase ranks 10th in goals/60 and 30th in shots/60 at 5v5 and is more than capable of generating offense, especially against opposing team's depth players.
Here are the projected lineups:
Calgary
Johnny Gaudreau - Sean Monahan - Sam Bennett Troy Brouwer - Mikael Backlund - Michael Frolik Micheal Ferland - Mark Jankowski - Chris Stewart Curtis Lazar - Matt Stajan - Garnet Hathaway
Mark Giordano - Dougie Hamilton Michael Stone - Travis Hamonic Brett Kulak - Rasmus Andersson
Mike Smith
Anaheim (via DailyFaceoff.com)
Rickard Rakell - Ryan Getzlaf - Corey Perry Andrew Cogliano - Ryan Kesler - Jakob Silfverberg Nick Ritchie - Adam Henrique - Ondrej Kase Chris Kelly - Derek Grant - J.T. Brown
Cam Fowler - Brandon Montour Josh Manson - Hampus Lindholm Francois Beauchemin - Marcus Petterson
John Gibson
Puck drop is just after 9:30 eastern and can be seen on SNW and FS-W.
Note: data via NaturalStatTrick.com and Corsica.Hockey.