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Are the Flames a .500 Team? Calgary-Washington Game Day

December 3, 2022, 11:16 PM ET [47 Comments]
Trevor Neufeld
Calgary Flames Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Tonight is going to be a fun one.

Both the Calgary Flames and Washington Capitals are coming off losses. Both games happened to feature younger phenoms scoring the game-winning goal on Thursday night. Given that both teams are primarily populated by veteran NHL players, neither loss will be sitting well in their respective dressing rooms.

Most importantly, despite this game featuring the likes of Alex Ovechkin, John Carlson, Jonathan Huberdeau, Nazem Kadri and Elias Lindholm, neither team sits in the playoff picture as of this morning.

Washington holds a record of 10-11-4 for a .480 points percentage. Their 24 points in 25 games have them three points out of the final wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference.

Calgary, meanwhile, has a painfully .500 10-10-3 record following losing four of their last five. Edmonton, Nashville, and Minnesota are all three points ahead of Calgary’s 23 and take up the final two wildcard spots. A win tonight cuts that lead to just one.

A loss in Calgary and a win in Edmonton puts the gap at five points.

In other words, the Flames really can’t afford to lose this game.

Projected Flames Lines
Lineup courtesy of Pat Steinberg. @Fan960Steinberg

Huberdeau-Lindholm-Toffoli
Dube-Kadri-Mangiapane
Ruzicka-Backlund-Coleman
Lucic-Rooney-Lewis

Hanifin-Andersson
Weegar-Tanev
Zadorov-Stone

Vladar
Markstrom


Rooney Returns
A four-game, nine-day break ends for the 6’2” 190lb center as Kevin Rooney draws back into the lineup tonight. Rooney hasn’t been playing well lately. He has been on the ice for three even-strength goals against in his last four games.


Vladar Starts
Does anyone else feel like Calgary is very quietly amidst a goalie controversy? Incumbent starter Jacob Markstrom wasn’t mincing any words on Thursday night about his recent quality of play.


I just suck at hockey right now.
-Jacob Markstrom


The 25-year-old Daniel Vladar on the other hand has a very respectable .913 save percentage over seven games this season. It gets better if you reduce the sample size. The 6’5” Czech has a .937 save percentage in his last four games despite getting only one win added to his record in that time.


Power Play Problems
It’s been encouraging to see the Flames start to integrate the down-low feed to Elias Lindholm play that worked so well last season into their special teams strategy in the last two games. Instead of Tkachuk, it’s Johnathan Huberdeau parking on the goal line on the right side.

You can tell Huberdeau isn’t entirely comfortable yet in that position, but he’ll get the hang of it. Many would refer to the role as the handle of the umbrella in the Umbrella Formation.

CEDB63-C5-1-B92-4-DC1-A0-C1-772-C6-B72-F68-A
In this diagram, Jonathan Huberdeau would be F1. F2, Elias Lindholm, would draw higher into the slot when it appears Huberdeau is about to gain possession of the puck.

Something to keep an eye on.


Mr. 1300
If the Flames could stop playing Russians on milestone nights that would be great. If it’s not Evgeni Malkin returning to Pittsburgh for the first time since playing the 1000th game of his career in Chicago — a game where he potted the shootout winner and threw his stick into the crowd — if it’s not Malkin, it’s Ovechkin playing his 1300th game.

The Hall of Fame-bound sniper has seven goals and four assists over 13 games played in the Saddledome.

Projected Capitals Lines
Capitals projected lines courtesy of dailyfaceoff.com.

Ovechkin – Strome – Sheary
Milano – Kuznetsov – Oshie
Johansson – Eller – Mantha
Protas – Dowd – Hathaway

Gustafsson – Carlson
Fehervary – Jensen
Irwin – van Riemsdyk

Kuemper
Lindgren


Puck drops around 8:10 pm MST. Catch the game on CBC and Sportsnet East in Canada and NBC Sports in the States.


Trevor Neufeld


@Trevor_Neufeld


Stats via naturalstattrick.com, and nhl.com. Graphic via Ice Hockey Systems Inc.
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