After a well earned rest, the Calgary Flames are back at it tonight against a Winnipeg Jets team that will be hoping to save some face.

They played last night and it wasn’t pretty. A 7-1 pulverizing at the hands of Kirill Kaprizov and the Minnesota Wild. The Wild scored two fluke deflection goals early and the Jets defence ripped at the seams. Perennial Vezina candidate Connor Hellebuyck was chased and backup Eric Comrie was hung out to dry. Simple stuff like covering the front of the net was starting to be neglected by the time the fourth goal was scored.

This puts the Flames in a difficult situation.

They have the unfortunate circumstances of playing a Jets team that need a character win after being embarrassed the previous night. Head Coach Paul Maurice will surely be leaning into that premise. He’s one of the more motivational bench bosses in the NHL. The Calgary Flames will either have a very tough game ahead of them, or a very easy one. Given the Jets are on a four game losing streak where their on-ice product has gotten worse with each game — tonight’s game is crucial for the visiting team.

Unfortunately for them, they have to play a well-rested Calgary Flames who have scored four or more goals in five of the last six games. A team that has the best defence in the league 20 games into the season to the tune of 1.70GAA. A team with two of the best statistical goaltenders this season in Jacob Markstrom and Daniel Vladar. A team that has shutout their opponent in seven of their twenty games.

Lineup courtesy of Pat Steinberg @Fan960Steinberg

Gaudreau-Lindholm-Tkachuk
Coleman-Backlund-Mangiapane
Dube-Monahan-Pitlick
Lucic-Richardson-Lewis

Hanifin-Andersson
Kylington-Tanev
Zadorov-Gudbranson

Markstrom


Ruzicka called up
Future Olympian Adam Ruzicka was called up earlier this week while winger Walker Duehr was sent back down to Stockton to get ice time. The 22 year old Slovakian Ruzicka has 16 points in thirteen games with Stockton. He was tied with Jakob Pelletier for team lead in points when recalled. Darryl Sutter will likely only be slotting Ruzicka in if a forward is injured, but it still good to see players earning time with the big team.



Enjoy the game,



Trevor Neufeld

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