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Game 15: Playing the COVID Ravaged, Injured Senators |
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The Calgary Flames face off against the 4-9-1 Ottawa Senators this afternoon at 3pm MT. The Senators are in tough for this game. They dropped the puck versus the Penguins 22 hours prior to the beginning of this game. Despite COVID and injuries taking a good amount of their players out of the lineup — they pulled off a 6-3 win for their first victory in seven games. The Senators requested the NHL to have this weekend’s games postponed and we’re denied due to Olympic scheduling issues.
Gaudreau-Lindholm-Tkachuk
Coleman-Monahan-Mangiapane
Dube-Backlund-Lewis
Lucic-Richardson-Duehr
Hanifin-Andersson
Kylington-Tanev
Zadorov-Gudbranson
Vladar
Markstrom
Scoring issues
The Flames have lost three straight and the offence has been off in that time frame. Four goals in three games is not ideal. The Senators will be tired, running a low experience lineup, and will be starting backup Anton Forsberg given that Matt Murray is in COVID protocol. Today the Flames should be trying to get their playmaking going again.
Forgetting about last season
The Senators took the season series 6-3-0 last season. Their forward group did a great job at catching the Flames off guard on broken plays. Missed breakout passes, defensive turnovers, forwards getting caught too high we’re some common issues against the young Senators group.
Tkachuk Bowl
The Tkachuk brothers will be at it again and it’s always something to watch when they’re trying to one up each other. Brady became the youngest captain in franchise history this offseason while Matthew has served as an alternate captain since the 18-19 season. Brady has four points in his last five games and Matt has five in five — although he has zero points in his last three games.
Time to for a change? Update: Duehr is in.
The Flames could do with a shake up. The room won’t be pushing back if veterans are given the game off. Jusso Valimaki is unhappy with his usage and Walker Duehr should probably go back to Stockton if he’s not getting to play for the Flames.
Calgary kid
I play in a beer league out at Edge School for Athletes out across highway 1 from Calaway Park. Behind the glass in their arenas they have banners up for all the players that have matriculated at Edge that have made the NHL. I remember looking at the names last week. Dumba, Bean, Sanderson among about 10 banners. I remember thinking “wait, who’s Jacob Bernard-Docker?” Well, we’re all about to find out. The 21 year old Senators rookie defenseman drew into the lineup yesterday for his first game of the season. Chances are that he plays today. Bernard-Docker was picked 26th overall in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft. He has one assist in 8:47 of ice time on the season.
Enjoy the game,
Trevor Neufeld
Follow me on Twitter @Trevor_Neufeld
Calgary Flames Blogger • 
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