1) On Monday night the Calgary Flames concluded their six-game road trip with an overtime loss against the New York Islanders.
Losing to a last place team is always disappointing, however, the Flames were in the latter half of a back-to-back and managed to go a respectable 3-2-1 on their road trip with last night's result.
Though the Flames have played more games than all the teams they're chasing, they sit just two points back of a playoff spot. That isn't half bad considering they just had a ridiculously long road trip and their best player has been out of the lineup for weeks.
If the Flames can keep themselves within striking distance until Johnny Gaudreau returns they may still have a chance of getting into the playoffs this season.
2) For the first time in six starts, Brian Elliott posted a save percentage better than .875. He stopped 25-27 (.926SV%) against the Islanders and made some big stops to keep the team in the game until they found their legs in the final 30 minutes or so. If Elliott can get going and give the Flames a steady 1-2 punch between the pipes it'll go a long way towards staying in the playoff race. This team isn't good enough to survive without good goaltending, especially with Gaudreau out and Sean Monahan struggling.
3) Speaking of Monahan, he actually showed a pulse against the Islanders. He didn't get many minutes -- eight forwards on the team played more -- but he made the most of them. Monahan was positive in possession and had three shots, one of which he scored on, in the loss. His performance earned a game score of 1.26, which ranked 2nd on the team and 5th in the game. You could tell when he scored it meant a lot to him. Perhaps this will finally get him going.
4) Micheal Ferland is quietly playing some very good hockey. Despite seeing limited minutes on a nightly basis he has tallied nine points in 25 games while routinely landing heavy hits and driving possession. In the off-season I wrote he had more to give offensively and he's shown that as he has already equaled last season's goal total. I'd like to see him get more minutes as right now he's bringing a bit of everything to the table.
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