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After a strong contest against the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday night, the Flames will look to extend their play into tonight’s game against the Minnesota Wild.
While Calgary has only had a bit of success of late, the Wild have won five of their last six games and will be a tough challenge for Bob Hartley and his squad.
A questionable decision last year to name him the head coach for this franchise which was in need of a rebuild, Hartley has done quite well with his group in the early stages of said "franchise restructuring" that has been ongoing over the last year.
That said, the team has a long way to go and many areas to improve upon, however it appears that Hartley’s approach may be the one needed for this particular group. With a lack of star power and only a few veterans remaining, Hartley has demanded that his players work hard every night and prove everyone wrong, while also developing and teaching those underperforming.
Despite some harsh comments toward a few players who were expected to shine this year, Hartley has been very quiet about certain players who he’s felt needed work and kept them somewhat shielded from the media. Guys like Mikael Backlund and Sven Baertschi who took a lot of public criticism for the lack of personal success so far in their games, Hartley continues to maintain that he sees a lot of potential in them and will continue to work next to them.
Little things like this is very important from your head coach while rebuilding as in normal circumstances rookies have extra time and little pressure to develop, while in Calgary they are being scrutinized given that they are under the spotlight. With the amount of development needed on this team, Hartley appears to be the right guy to have steering the ship for the time being. But I digress.
As mentioned, the Wild have been quite well of late and the two players who will likely be decision makers for tonight’s game will be Jason Pominville and Josh Harding. Both players have had strong starts to their season’s with Pominville posting 10 goals for the year and Harding holding a 1.10 GAA and .950 SV%. With these two on their games tonight, the Flames may have a rough time keeping the puck out of their own net, and also scoring goals of their own.
That said, recently called up Reto Berra had a very strong performance against the Hawks on Sunday and is expected to get his 2nd NHL career start tonight. With some strong performances from Berra, Russell and a few of their rookies, the Flames have been finding success in their games but feel like they haven’t been rewarded for their work.
"The last few games we've played well, but we haven't been rewarded," Russell said. "We needed to have a grittier game. Hopefully, we can build some momentum off this."
As Russell points out, the games which they have done well have been those played with a higher level of grit. As displayed against Chicago, the Flames blocked a lot of shots, played the body well, and were a unified team. Without a few veterans in the lineup, it is key that the team continues to play this way if they are to find any more success this year, with or without strong tending.
On that note, while Berra had a strong start to his NHL career, I would not hold my hopes too high for tonight’s game. Playing against another strong team on the road is going to be a tough test for the inexperienced goalie and he will need a strong team game to shine.
Having watched him play for a similar “star-absent… team overseas, Hartley says that Berra is very much used to playing in front of a hardworking team and seeing a lot of shots. In fact, it wasn’t abnormal for him to steal games on a nightly basis. Whether this type of play can translate to the NHL or not however, is left to be seen.
“I saw him steal lots of games. That’s what I saw from him,… Hartley said. “The team he was playing for was a very hard-working team but not very deep in talent. They would show up every game but he would get, like, 35, 40, 45 shots every game...“I’ve seen him take his team to the playoffs, take his team to Game 7s where, he would get the three wins for his team, basically, by himself. He’s a national team goalie, so it’s not luck or it’s not because suddenly we’re falling in love with a Swiss goalie. We saw him do it."
“I think that not only is he very talented, but he has the demeanour. It’s in him. You can feel he wants to do it, he wants to compete, he’s always under control.…
Some pretty positive words from the head coach, though as I alluded to earlier, don’t expect too much from the goalie as this will be only his 2nd NHL start of his career and has a long way to go with this squad if he succeeds beyond the next couple of games.
On a side note - according to YahooSports, the current percentage odds are 38:62 in favor of the Wild…something the Flames have loved to hear when preparing for games!
That’s all for today folks, thanks for reading!