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Battle of Alberta Game Day — Cuts Made |
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Tonight at 7:00pm we get a bit of treat. The Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers are set for a Battle of Alberta preview. Unlike the Oilers on Wednesday, the Flames will be sending some actual NHL quality players. It’s just poor taste to send no players of note to a game that people are paying money to watch live.
We’ll get a first look at Huberdeau playing against McDavid and Draisatl as a Flame. He had two powerplay assists in two games against the Oilers last season.
We’ll get to see most of Edmonton’s blue line — which includes Darnell Nurse. The 9.25 million dollar defenseman played through a torn hip flexor last season and will commence year one of an eight year deal once the upcoming season begins for the Oilers on October 12 against the Canucks.
We’ll get to see Jack Campbell, a goalie who played sub .900 hockey for most of the 21-22 season, yet still earned a 5x5 contract with the Oilers.
Jack Campbell 21-22 Regular Season
October 12 to November 30
GP: 18
Sv%: .946
GAA: 1.64
December 1-April 30
GP: 31
Sv%: .896
GAA: 3.22
Playoffs
GP: 7
Sv%: .897
GAA: 3.15
We’ll even get to see a line of Dillon Dube, Kevin Rooney and Cody Eakin. Truly a once in a lifetime opportunity.
Let’s take a look at the lines.
Flames Lineup
Huberdeau-Ruzicka-Toffoli
Dube-Rooney-Eakin
Zary-Schwindt-Milano
McLain-Bishop-Duehr
Hanifin-Andersson
Mackey-Stone
Valimaki-Meloche
Vladar
Wolf
Oilers Lineup
Kane-McDavid-Yamamoto
Hyman-Draisaitl-Puljujarvi
RNH-McLeod-Foegele
Esposito-Philp-Griffith
Nurse-Ceci
Kulak-Bouchard
Broberg-Murray
Campbell
Pickard
Borrowed Time
Sonny Milano is running out of opportunities to impress Flames brass. Zero points in 31:40 of ice time over two games won’t cut it. To his credit, he hasn’t been on the ice for a goal against, although he’s had a gaffe or two in his own end.
The same goes for 23 year old Jusso Valimaki. The Nokia, Finland native had a rough game against the Kraken on Tuesday in terms of opportunity and shot metrics. It’s preseason, so we don’t need to go hard into shot attempt differential, but zero goals for and three against over 43:25 while he’s on the ice isn’t winning a spot — one of those goals against was short handed. Playing against a rotation of McDavid, Draisatl and Ryan Nugent Hopkins tonight will be a gauntlet.
A Round of Cuts
The following players were assigned to the Calgary Wranglers today.
Brad Arvanitis (G)
Josh Brook (D)
Calder Brooks (C)
Daniil Chechelev (G)
Lucas Feuk (LW)
Alex Gallant (LW)
Rory Kerins (C)
Simon Lavigne (D)
Matt Marcinew (RW)
Ilya Nikolaev (C)
Rhett Rhinehart (D)
No surprises. These players had been practicing in their own group already.
Puck drop at around 7:10pm MST. You can catch the game on nhl.com/flames or listen to it in the Fan 960.
Trevor Neufeld
@Trevor_Neufeld
Calgary Flames Blogger • 
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