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The Calgary Flames will take to the ice tonight against the Florida Panthers who have been on a solid streak of late, having found points in 7 of their last ten games played.
The Flames themselves have been doing alright, all things considered, with points in five of their last 10 games played. While Calgary have lost their last two played, their record is about what most would expect at this stage of the year.
Their overall systems and strategies, if you will, are still very much present, however the level of effort and/or experience of the majority of their roster appears to be diminishing just a little; enough to cause a few more losses than wins over their current stretch.
Tonight will mark game 42 for the good guys, moving them beyond the half way mark of the season. As I previously mentioned, January will be a strong test and indication of how this team will likely play out the remainder of the year. Currently sitting 5th in the Pacific and two points out of a wild card spot, the Flames are starting to trend downward (somewhere an Edmonton Oilers fan felt a little better about their own team).
But let’s call a spade a spade shall we? This team wasn’t expected to do much more than challenge for that lottery pick. We are sitting here, on a Friday night in January discussing the possibility of this group pushing for a damn playoff spot...in the 2nd year of their rebuild (somewhere another Oilers fan sheds a tear).
With respect to the game tonight, many are calling for a Johnny Gaudreau vs Aaron Ekblad showcase, as both respective rookies have been doing quite well of late. In addition to the fact that I’ve now mentioned playoffs more than two times in this blog, Johnny Hockey is already good for 31 points in 40 games played this year. To put that into perspective, the players around the NHL who have similar numbers are:
39 Max Pacioretty 40 Jason Pominville 41 Ondrej Palat 42 Bryan Little 43 Martin St. Louis 44 Johnny Gaudreau 45 Patrice Bergeron 46 Zach Parise 47 Pavel Datsyuk 48 Tyler Bozak 49 Ryan Callahan 50 Blake Wheeler 51 Jeff Carter 52 Anze Kopitar 53 John Carlson Umm, ya…that’s something, isn’t it?
Go buy the guy’s jersey if you haven’t already. This rookie has been dynamic and has shown some tremendous levels of hockey talent so far this year. All while playing for a rebuilding Calgary team who should be, as most would like to offer, sitting in the leagues basement. While ahead of many veteran players, Gaudreau is currently ranked 2nd in scoring for rookies behind Filip Forsberg, who by the way was drafted 11th overall in 2012.
Outside of keeping an eye on Gaudreau tonight, many fans have been looking forward to seeing more of Mikael Backlund who has missed most of the year with an abdominal injury which he suffered during the offseason. Backlund played his first game back against Detroit a few nights ago and registered one goal and one assist. While he did look like he’s been off the ice for a little while and possibly a little leaner, Mikael surprised his fans and teammates with his efforts, but not his coach.
"Backs is probably one of the most underrated two-way players in the league," Hartley offered. "(Wednesday), that was exactly the Mikael Backlund that we know, and that's exactly the Mikael Backlund that we need."
Jonas Hiller is expected to face Roberto Luongo tonight, if Luongo gets a shot at playing back to back games. Jiri Hudler is also expected to get back into the lineup after missing a game due to the birth of his child. In other related notes, aggressor and locker room hero Brian McGrattan was placed on waivers today to make room for Hudler and Backlund.
Thanks for reading!