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Just a few quick hits for today, but the Calgary Flames have announced that captain Mark Giordano and rookie Johnny Gaudreau will both attend the 2015 NHL All Star game, exciting news for Flames fans!
As I blogged about yesterday, Gaudreau has been on a tear this season and has proven to the hockey world what he’s capable of doing, despite his size and draft position. I had my personal reservations about Johnny given his size, but for anyone who’s watched him play in Boston College and throughout the Flames rookie camps, he was always standing out and looked like an NHLer.
The All Star game will be in Columbus Ohio this year and will start on the 23nd of January. To put this decision in perspective, Gaudreau is among a list of rookies such as Aaron Ekblad, Tanner Pearson, Filip Forsberg, and Jonathan Drouin – all players, might I add, that were drafted in the first round of the NHL draft.
Outside of Gaudreau, it’s nice to see Mark Giordano receive recognition as well given how hard the defenseman has worked to get to where he is. Giordano is among a list of impressive defenders such as Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Justin Faulk, Erik Johnson, Drew Doughty, Ryan Suter, Shea Weber, Brent Burns, Kevin Shattenkirk, and Dustin Byfuglien.
Good on ya Gio!
Tonight the Flames are taking to the ice against an old rival in the Vancouver Canucks who are looking to continue on improving their own record and play. The Flames are currently sitting on a three game losing streak and have only amassed 9 points out of their last ten games played, but I feel their play of late is starting to trend in the right direction.
As I previously mentioned, January is an important month for these teams and finding consistency is very important if teams want to trend in the right direction moving in the latter half of the year. The Flames have been struggling to find consistency over the past month or so of play, however head coach Bob Hartley believes in his group and their games remain rather close.
Tonight’s game is in favour of the Canucks who have won their past nine straight matches against the Flames, however with the addition of Backlund into their lineup, they seem to have a little more jump to their overall game. Joni Ortio is likely going to start tonight and I would imagine will face Vancouver netminder Eddie Lack.
Enjoy the game!