Following a 3-1 loss dictated by special teams on Tuesday, the 2-4-1 Calgary Flames are set to play the 2-2-1 St. Louis Blues tonight. There is a lot of news to talk about, so let’s dig in.
Encouraging Signs It’s tough seeing the Flames drop to 2-4-1 on the season, but there was a lot to like from Tuesday’s game.
Blake Coleman, had a goal and four shots. The veteran right winger appears to be heating up. Nazem Kadri carried the puck to much more dangerous areas and used his speed much better. The 33 year old even dropped the selfish act and started making some creative passes in the third. Goaltender Jacob Markstrom made some ten-bell saves and Nikita Zadorov played the best period of hockey in his life in the third.
A turnaround is coming. It might be tonight against the Blues.
Ruzicka Oddly enough, Adam Ruzicka is still practicing after sustaining a shoulder injury on Tuesday. I have a piece waiting for a rainy day that elaborates further on this topic, but how much should the players trust the Flames organization when it comes to medical clearance?
Adam Ruzicka got banged up on this hit from Jimmy Vesey. pic.twitter.com/gcI5drIqXP
— Robert Munnich (@RingOfFireCGY) October 25, 2023
Gazdic: “Was it bothering you a lot last year? Like time to time before you made the decision to have the surgery? I would assume that there were a lot of incidents that happened before you came to that decision.…Mangiapane: “Yeah, I think it happened I’d say pretty early. First couple games. Just kinda kept I guess slipping out, just like the sub-blocks going down. Fall to brace and it would just kinda slip out and whole kinda arm would get numb. You know the feeling.
Then there is the original core member of Calgary’s 2010’s rebuild, Sean Monahan.
Anyone willing to venture a guess as to how much money Sean lost out on being allowed to play through so many serious medical issues requiring surgery? Wrist surgery, multiple hernias, and hip surgeries all coming close to or after season’s end.
Monahan celebrated his 29th birthday this October. His first UFA payday was a 1-year, $2,000,000 deal. His partner in crime during their days in Calgary, Johnny Gaudreau, started his UFA era with a 7-year, $68,250,000 contract a year before that during the offseason of 2022.
Ruzicka, 24 years old and at least three seasons away from UFA status, would do well in getting a second opinion.
The Second Powerplay Unit In a bit of a surprise this morning, Dryden Hunt took Ruzicka’s place practicing on Calgary’s PP2 unit. The Flames must expect Ruzicka back soon.
Koona t’chuta, Solo? For those that don’t speak Huttese, the language used by Jabba the Hutt among others in the rolling Hutt Palace, the above translates to: Going somewhere, Solo?
Today, defenceman Ilya Solovyov can proudly say “Yes, I am, Jabba.… The 23 year old left-shot defenceman has been recalled from the Calgary Wranglers and will take Jordan Oesterle’s place on the blue line.
The Belarusian defender brings more size (6’2… 207lbs) to the back end and does less risk-taking in the offensive zone. He has a goal an assist and an even 0 rating through four games with the Wranglers this season.
I am Just a Boxer It’s hard to say that we saw Nikita Zadorov’s best game as a Flame on Tuesday provided that he scored a powerplay-free hat trick in game 82 last year. His advanced stats weren’t much above 50% in most categories and on the box score it said he had two shots, two hits and zero points.
Nikita Zadorov trying to spark this Flames offence on this end to end rush. pic.twitter.com/6Dmgll8gcA
— Robert Munnich (@RingOfFireCGY) October 25, 2023
Nikita Zadorov trying to spark this Flames offence on this end to end rush. pic.twitter.com/6Dmgll8gcA
— Robert Munnich (@RingOfFireCGY) October 25, 2023
Calgary Flames Projected Lineup Huska didn’t run lines or pairings today in practice, so we’re doing some projecting until warmup. Huberdeau-Lindholm-Sharangovich Mangiapane-Backlund-Coleman Greer-Kadri-Duehr Hunt-Dube-Coronato
Hanifin-Weegar Gilbert-Tanev Zadorov-Solovyov
Markstrom Vladar
Special Teams Given that Calgary started Sunday’s game against Detroit with a 100% penalty kill rate, you could expect a regression to the mean a bit. It’s been a bit overboard in that regard. The Flames are now 88.9% and essentially lost the last game by two power play goals scored in the second period.
Luckily or unluckily, their opposition tonight has had issues on the power play. Painful 6.7% kind of issues. The question is, when does that stat start returning to a respectful number? The Blues have a 37.5% power play conversion rate against Calgary in their last ten games.
The Blues It appears that there will be two hot messes playing at the Saddledome tonight. Here is what Brayden Schenn had to say about their 4-2 loss to Winnipeg on Tuesday.
"I think we just have to raise our battle level. (We're) not gonna generate chances if we're not gonna check as hard as we need to... We've got to find a way to generate more - two goals isn't gonna do it night in and night out."
Howdy-Ho Neighbourino! Jake Neighbours gets another chance to play in front of his hometown tonight. The 21 year old has two points in two games against Calgary.
St. Louis Blues Projected Lineup Courtesy of Matthew DeFranks. @MDeFranks Saad-Thomas-Kyrou Buchnevich-Schenn-Kapanen Toropchenko-Hayes-Neighbours Sundqvist-Blais
Leddy-Parayko Krug-Faulk Leddy-Bortuzzo Perunovich
Hofer Binnington
Game time is 7:00 p.m. in Calgary and 8:00 p.m. in St.Louis. Catch the broadcast on Sportsnet in Canada and Bally Sports in the States.
Trevor Neufeld
@Trevor_Neufeld
Stats via espn.com, eliteprospects.com and naturalstattrick.com. Quote sources from Mitts Off With Luke Gazdic. Brayden Schenn quote sourced via nhl.com.