Fresh off their third loss in as many games the Calgary Flames are in Arizona to take on the suddenly hot Coyotes.
Arizona dropped six in a row prior to the deadline, which sealed their fate as sellers (and a non playoff team), but they clearly haven't given up on the season as they've won three in a row and eight of 13 since the deadline.
While the Flames' record would suggest otherwise the Flames have played some good hockey since the deadline. They just haven't gotten the results.
Everything is playing out perfectly from an organizational stand point, though, as the team is showing signs of life, plenty of young guys are playing well and the team is still losing.
As such the Flames are now only three points out of last place and appear to be all but a lock to pick in the top-5 of this year's draft.
They can get one stop closer to said pick with another loss tonight.
LINEUPS
Poirier - Monahan - Shinkaruk Bouma - Backlund - Frolik Colborne - Bennett - Grant Ferland - Stajan - Bollig
Brodie - Hamilton Giordano - Engelland Kulak - Nakladal
Ortio
--
Domi - Chipchura - Duclair Reider - Richardson - Tikhonov Tanguay - Vermette - Sekai Martinook - Gordon - Plotnikov
Ekman-Larsson - Murphy Connauton - Michalek Grossmann - Dahlbeck
Domingue
Notes
1) Since February 1st the Coyotes goaltenders have combined to post a .934SV% at 5 v 5 (3rd in that span). Despite that they have a negative 5 v 5 goal differential in that span. This is not a good team.
2) In that same span the Coyotes are the 5th worst possession team in the NHL and rank 3rd last in scoring chance for percentage. The Flames rank 16th and 15th in the two categories. So, basically they've been a borderline playoff caliber team at 5 v 5 over the last month and a bit.
3) Sam Bennett has just one assist and five shots in his last five games. The games are no longer important from a team perspective but it'd be nice to see him begin to take the next step.
The game is at 10:00 eastern and can be seen on SN-F and FS-Arizona.
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