It’s been a rough ride for the Calgary Flames and their fanbase since October 29, 2022.
They’ve lost six straight games.
They’ve blown eight leads.
They’ve had the second worst powerplay in the NHL - converting at 12.5% success rate. Only Pittsburgh is worse at 6.7%.
They’re sixth in minor penalties taken.
Pretty demoralizing. Hard to spin some positives out of a six game losing streak — but let’s try.
Physicality It was thrill seeing Dennis Gilbert enter the lineup and make an immediate impact in the physicality department. Two big hits and a decisive win in a fight over Nathan Bastien. That being the Flames’ second fight of the season.
Conversationally, Mitch McLain has more fights on the Wranglers than the Calgary Flames have fights in total.
The rest of the team isn’t slouching in the hitting department either. The Calgary Flakes lead the league in hits since their losing streak began on October 29.
It’s a committee effort. No Flames player is in the top ten for total hits thrown, but Nikita Zadorov (20), MacKenzie Weegar (18), Trevor Lewis (15), and Milan Lucic (14) are all in the top 50. The number in brackets denotes total hits.
Skids Happen This isn’t the first time Darryl has had to lead the Flames through a rough patch.
March 11 to April 5 – 20-21 Regular Season Nine losses in eleven games.
Dec 5 and Jan 13 – 21-22 Regular Season Eight losses in ten games, including two four-game losing streaks.
Difficulty of Schedule Dom of the Athletic made a strong case that Calgary has had by far the most difficult schedule based on opposition points projections. Certainly worth considering, but at the end of the day: you have to beat the team in front of you — regardless of how good they are.
Which brings us to today’s game.
The 5-5-2 Calgary Flames are in Boston today to play the 11-2-0 Bruins.
The opposition has won eight of their last nine games. They’ve outscored the opposition 33-16 in that time. They have the league’s best penalty kill this season — as well as the best offence at 4.08 goals per game. Their defence is the third best in the league at 2.39 goals against per game and, oh, Charlie McAvoy returns to the lineup tonight after missing the first 13 games while recovering from shoulder surgery.
One more note, the Bruins haven’t lost at home this season. 7-0-0 at TD Garden.
Woof.
Despite the daunting statistics, you have to feel like the Flames have a chance. They’re certainly playing better than their recent record indicates. Four of six losses have had the Flames outshooting the opposition and five of six have been decided by a single goal.
Ruzicka stays on the first line. Former Bruin Daniel Vladar gets the start in net.
Projected Lineup — Flames
Ruzicka-Lindholm-Toffoli Dube-Kadri-Coleman Mangiapane-Backlund-Lewis Lucic-Rooney-Ritchie
Hanifin-Andersson Zadorov-Weegar Gilbert-DeSimone
Vladar Markstrom
Projected Lineup — Bruins Courtesy of Conor Ryan @ConorRyan93
Marchand-Bergeron-DeBrusk Hall-Krejci-Pastrnak Frederic-Coyle-Zacha Foligno-Nosek-Smith
Grzelcyk-McAvoy Lindholm-Clifton Zboril-Carlo
Ullmark Swayman
Game time is 5:00pm mst. Catch the broadcast on Sportsnet 360 or TVA Sports in Canada and the New England Sports Network in the States.
Trevor Neufeld
@Trevor_Neufeld
Stats via naturalstattrick.com and nhl.com.