What a difference a week makes.
Much like tonight, last week the Calgary Flames were set for a Tuesday night matchup against the Nashville Predators. They had won their last game and Nashville had lost their last— again, just like tonight.
Different is that the Predators are breathing a bit easier, despite dropping two straight games. The Golden Knights, the primary threat to Nashville’s playoff spot, now sits three points out. Their game against the Dallas Stars will serve as last chance at gaining enough ground to keep their playoff hopes alive.
That is, unless Nashville loses their last three and Vegas picks up at least a point against Dallas.
Alright, too many hypotheticals. Tonight’s game.
Since their last meeting; a 3-2 shootout victory for the Predators, the two teams have trended in opposite directions. Two wins for the now 49-20-10 Calgary Flames – 108 points. Two losses for the Predators albeit one in overtime. That overtime point put them at 94 points and a 44-29-6 record.
We’re certainly at a point where we can say with confidence that the Flames will play one of Dallas or Nashville. Two teams that have lost three of their last four games.
Lines will be updated as we get closer to game time. Here are the most recent practice lines (April 24) via Pat Steinberg. @Fan960Steinberg
Gaudreau-Lindholm-Tkachuk Mangiapane-Backlund-Toffoli Dube-Jarnkrok-Coleman Lucic-Lewis-Ritchie Ruzicka-Carpenter Hanifin-Andersson Kylington-Tanev Zadorov-Gudbranson Mackey-Stone
Vladar Wolf
Another Night Off? It’s unclear whether starter Jacob Markstrom will get another game off to get his arms around the fatigue of playing 62 games this season. Markstrom has a history of late season injury as well.
Momentum Robbery The Predators lost their most recent game in spectacular fashion. Defensive specialist Dmitri Kulikov put the game away on a breakaway goal with 1.6 seconds remaining in overtime.
Good teams will reset and move forward, but those kind of goals linger with goalies. Flames fans would hope that goal was scored against Jusse Saros— Nashville’s starter. Unfortunately, it was scored on former fan favourite David Rittich. Sorry, Dave.
Defensive Test If the two 3-2 losses requiring extra time didn’t indicate it enough; a Flames/Predators playoffs series would be more of a defensive showdown than a blow-for-blow transition based series.
That may be a blessing. Nashville’s offence isn’t scaring anyone. In 12 games this month (5-5-2) the predators rank 26th in goals per game. 2.25. In terms of defence they sit at 24th over that time span with 3.58 goals against per game.
The Predators aren’t playing their best hockey down the stretch.
One might tack it up to stronger divisional opponents, but a 5-5-2 record pales in comparison to the Flames’ 9-2-1 in April. Calgary has 4.25 goals per game (6th) and 2.67 goals against per game (3rd) over that time.
Game time is 6:00pm mst. Stars/Golden Knights start at 6:30pm mst. Keep that remote handy.
Trevor Neufeld