The Flames are on the road tonight in St. Louis.
Despite their loss to Vancouver at home on Wednesday, the Flames pulled through for a road win over the Oilers in Edmonton on Thursday. Anyone who picked Mason Raymond on their fantasy team will be happy after he recorded a hat trick but tonight a hat trick won’t come as easy.
Overall I can’t complain about the Flames showing so far this year but the Blues will be a big test for Calgary because they are playing a better team on the road. They’ve lost their last 4 visits to see the Blues, so what do they need to do tonight to win? Capitalize on Blues errors. If the Blues loss in their season opener against the N.Y. Rangers on Thursday taught us anything, it’s that you need to take what you can get. The Rangers win was due to a couple unlucky breaks for the Blues. After the loss the Blues said they need to get off to a better start against the Flames. So Calgary needs to counter punch and make sure they are ready to go for all 3 periods of hockey tonight.
The Blues are a tough team and breaking down their defense won’t be easy. Tonight is a good opportunity for Gaudreau to use his speed to throw off them off. Goals will have to be earned tonight so the Flames need to be aggressive on the fore check and really pressure their defense to be successful. If they can break them down and force them to make errors, they should be rewarded on the scoreboard.
Hartley has stressed work ethic over and over and the Flames are answering his call. For the next couple years, there will always be something to work on in Calgary but right now, playing hard and being competitive in games is most important. Their never say die attitude is what makes them capable of winning games this season.
The odds are with St. Louis so a win for the Flames tonight would be a huge confidence boost to the squad and probably a big surprise to many. I’m not counting them out just yet because I think the Flames have a few surprises up their sleeves this season.