Follow Colin on Twitter!: @ColinDJD
As the season winds down, the Calgary Flames are likely to play more and more teams who have already clinched a playoff spot and are, as such, preparing themselves for their intended postseason runs.
And while the above may not be the case for the Flames, they still have plenty to work on and worry about in terms of their own future, despite being more of a long-term picture than short-term. That said, the Flames continue to provide ice time and opportunity to new and young players such as recently signed Bryce Van Brabant.
With respect to this particular individual, at this point in time, I haven’t seen enough of him to make a proper assessment. With that established, what I have seen and what I can offer so far is that the young forward possesses skills similar to that of your typical third line checking forward; not flashy in any regards but able to remove his opponent from the puck.
The 22 year old, 6'3 205lbs Van Brabant will likely get a lot of opportunity to finish out the year with the Flames as Hartley hopes to get as good of a view of this new prospect as possible…in fact, I wouldn’t mind having a few games to watch myself.
And while it appears that neither myself nor the coach likely has a great indication of what to expect from this player, Flames acting GM Brian Burke seems to have a good idea, or at least I should hope.
“He plays Brian Burke hockey. This is a big, hard-nosed, heavy player. He plays heavy hockey,… said Burke. “He’s got proper levels of truculence.…
That’s right folks, truculence. The one word Burke hopes to use when referencing all his new and upcoming players. If there is one thing that Brian Burke likes to see its players who play with their hearts on their sleeves, battles night in/night out, and plays the body. While I can say that it appears that Van Brabant battles hard, I can’t really speak to the other playing styles/characteristics.
With respect to tonight’s game, the Tampa Bay Lightning should offer a good challenge to the Flames tonight. Having only lost one game in regulation over their last ten played, Steven Stamkos and the Bolts have really found their game and are quite hopeful for their playoff chances.
"We're proud in here," Stamkos said. "It's been an adverse season, to say the least. Guys have battled through a lot of things and a lot of people were probably doubting us after certain guys got injured and trades and the amount of young guys we had on this team."
And as much as the Lightning may be proud of their own play, the Flames likely hold the same sentiments and will be right there with them tonight, provided they continue to play as they have of late. While Calgary has dropped two games in a row, consequently dropping their record to 5-5-0 over their last ten played, expect another close game tonight. "This is an evaluation period for everyone," Flames forward Curtis Glencross told the team's website. "We have a lot of pride and obviously were not in the playoffs right now, but at the same time you don't like losing games either, so we're going to play hard right till the end."
With defenseman Tyler Wotherspoon undergoing season-ending shoulder surgery later this week, the Flames have recalled defensemen Chris Breen from the Abbotsford Heat and Mark Cundari from the Chicago Wolves of the American Hockey League. Cundari will lace them up tonight and Karri Ramo is expected to get the nod to start once again.
Here are your expected lines for tonight’s battle.
Cammalleri - Backlund - Hudler Glencross - Monahan - Colborne Van Brabant - Galiardi - McGrattan Hanowski - Bouma - Westgarth
Brodie - Giordano Russell - Butler Billens - Breen
Ramo
Thanks for reading!