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Tonight the Calgary Flames open their season the same way last ended: with a date against the Colorado Avalanche.
Here are five things to watch in the season opener:
1. Sam Bennett’s offense
Sam Bennett worked with skills coach Darryl Belfry in the summer to try and improve his offensive game. In particular, his shot deception and release. His efforts appeared to pay off in the preseason as Bennett potted a pair of goals, added an assist, and recorded eight scoring chances (tied for 2nd on the team) at 5v5 over the four games he played.
He looked good and, more importantly, was productive. With some Flames likely to hit a bit of regression this season, Bennett taking a step forward – and offsetting some of the expected dips in production – would go a long way towards contending for another division title. We’ll see if he’s up for it
2. Explosive lines
The Avalanche don’t usually shy from using best on best at home, which means we might see a good dose of COL1 vs CGY1. That’d be must-see TV.
The Landeskog - MacKinnon - Rantanen line controlled ~55% of the shot attempts and out-scored opponents 46-29 at 5v5 last season. They were dominant.
CGY1 was similarly effective, as Gaudreau - Monahan - Lindholm helped the Flames control 54% of the shot share and won the scoreboard battle 52-35.
3. Big Save Dave
David Rittich had a really good preseason. He looked sharp and controlled, made some highlight reel saves, and posted excellent numbers. The Flames need him to carry that sharpness into tonight as he’ll no doubt be tested heavily vs an Avalanche team a) loaded with firepower and; b) a history of creating chances in bunches, even against an otherwise sound team in the Flames.
4. Speed, speed, speed.
The Avalanche skated the Flames into the ground last post-season. Nathan MacKinnon and co. came at the Flames full speed every time up the ice and they simply had no answer.
Joe Sakic actually added even more pace to his lineup in the off-season, picking up the likes of Joonas Donskoi and Andre Burakovsky, among others. The Flames, well, didn’t. They’re returning essentially the same roster.
Can they find a way to bottle up the Avs and neutralize their speed, or are we heading for more of the same tonight?
5. Discipline
The Flames were one of the more penalty-prone teams in the NHL last season. While that didn’t seem to hamper them too much as a whole – they won the West, afterall – a lack of discipline could be a serious issue against a team like Colorado. Their top power play is as lethal as any. Though Tyson Barrie is no longer part of the fold, super prospect Cale Makar looks more than capable of filling that role. They have to stay out of the box tonight, especially if Mikael Backlund is unavailable.
Here are the projected lineups:
Calgary
** questionable
Johnny Gaudreau - Sean Monahan - Elias Lindholm
Matthew Tkachuk - Mikael Backlund** - Michael Frolik
Milan Lucic - Derek Ryan - Sam Bennett
Andrew Mangiapane - Mark Jankowski - Austin Czarnik
Mark Giordano - T.J. Brodie
Noah Hanifin - Travis Hamonic
Oliver Kylington - Rasmus Andersson
David Rittich
Cam Talbot
Colorado
Gabriel Landeskog - Nathan MacKinnon - Mikko Rantanen
Tyson Jost - Nazem Kadri - Andre Burakovsky
Matt Nieto - J.T. Compher - Joonas Donskoi
Matt Calvert - P.E. Bellemare - Valeri Nichushkin
Sam Girard - Erik Johnson
Nikita Zadorov - Cale Makar
Ryan Graves - Conor Timmins
Philipp Grubauer
Numbers via naturalstattrick.com
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