Amid a quiet usually reserved for coastal cities after a hurricane has rolled through, the Calgary Flames will march on tonight into game two of the post-Hanifin/Tanev Era. So far, the results have looked good on both the ice and on paper. Let's get to it!
Calgary Flames (31-26-5, 67 pts) vs Florida Panthers (43-17-4, 90 pts)
Last Ten: Calgary (6-4-0) Florida (8-2-0) Time: 2:00 p.m. Mountain Standard Time. TV: Sportsnet One, Sportsnet West, Bally Sports Southwest, ESPN+
Miro’s Second Chance Is anyone else excited to see yet another underappreciated eastern European player get a shot at a major NHL role? Just to step out of the fourth wall for a second, I remember starting on at HockeyBuzz covering the Golden Knights. Daniil Miromanov was entering his first full pro season in North America. He looked like the most talented player on the Golden Knights during the preseason – but he also was trying to do everything on his own. “Miro… has all the talent required to run a powerplay and play a top four role in the NHL. Now he just has to make it work with his new team.
It’s expected that the 26 year old will play alongside Oliver Kylington today.
Funk the Haters It may be just a bit of perception is reality, but it’s a relief to see Noah Hanifin head off to another team. There was clearly a rift in the dressing room during the Sutter Era, and if players have made it known that they want to play elsewhere; good. Now they’re gone. Time to build some positivity and have more fun.
Speaking of Vibe Changes The Flames played a different game in their first without Noah Hanifin. It was far more of a counterpunch approach. The Lightning vastly outpaced the Flames, particularly in the first. The final tally in even strength shot attempts was 45-34 in favour of Tampa, but Calgary had more even strength high danger chances (10-8) simply by leaning back into a neutral zone structure and waiting for their chance to capitalize on a mistake.
That all makes for an exciting on-ice product.
Calgary Flames Projected Lineup 22 Jakob Pelletier // 91 Nazem Kadri // 96 Andrei Kuzmenko 10 Jonathan Huberdeau // 17 Yegor Sharangovich // 27 Matt Coronato 88 Andrew Mangiapane // 11 Mikael Backlund // 20 Blake Coleman 71 Walker Duehr // 21 Kevin Rooney // 15 Dryden Hunt 52 MacKenzie Weegar // 4 Rasmus Andersson 58 Oliver Kylington // 62 Daniil Miromanov 94 Brayden Pachal // 44 Joel Hanley 25 Jacob Markstrom 80 Dan Vladar
Scratched: Nikita Okhotiuk, Dennis Gilbert Injured: Connor Zary (upper body) Suspended: Martin Pospisil
Florida Panthers Projected Lineup 10 Vladimir Tarasenko // 16 Sasha Barkov // 13 Sam Reinhart 23 Carter Verhaeghe // 9 Sam Bennett // 19 Matthew Tkachuk 27 Eetu Luostarinen // 15 Anton Lundell // 17 Evan Rodrigues 21 Nick Cousins // 82 Kevin Stenlund // 94 Ryan Lomberg
41 Gustav Forsling // 5 Aaron Ekblad 77 Niko Mikkola // 62 Brandon Montour 91 Oliver Ekman-Larsson // 7 Dmitry Kulikov
41 Anthony Stolarz 72 Sergei Bobrovsky
Scratched: Kyle Okposo, Josh Mahura, Steven Lorentz, Jonah Gadjovich, Tobias Bjornfot Injured: None Suspended: None Puck drop is at 2:08 p.m. MST.
Stats via naturalstattrick and nhl.com
Trevor Neufeld
Oh hi Mark. #Flames #VegasBorn pic.twitter.com/aL8Zj5s1tP
— TrevorNeufeld (@Trevor_Neufeld) March 8, 2024