After a physical 3-2 win over the LA Kings, the Calgary Flames finish out their back-to-back tonight against the Anaheim Ducks at 8pm MST.
First, let’s look at the game that was.
Coup de Tkachuk
There was no shortage of violence at the Staples Center on Thursday night. Leading the way in that regard was Matthew Tkachuk. Within the first two minutes, the 23 year old caught Drew Doughty in front of the net and gave him a shot from behind sending him reeling. This would be the first of several instances. Tkachuk later escalated the game again with a reverse hit style elbow on, once again, Drew Doughty. Tkachuk put a bow on that play by nudging over Kings goalie Cal Pettersson. Chaos ensued.
Tkachuk would go on to score the game winning goal in the second period off a wrist shot — Doughty was in front of him putting up a partial screen. Last night was exactly what you want to see from the soon to be restricted free agent.
The bottom pairing
With the Flames fourth line and bottom defensive pairing deployed early in the first period, the Kings got a tip on an Edler point shot to make the game 1-0. Defenseman Erik Gudbranson failed to clear the front of the net of Alex Iafollo, who tipped the shot. Gudbranson seemingly took that personally. From that point on both him and defence partner Nikita Zadorov took no prisoners. Crosschecks after the play, beaking Kings forwards, and a handful of slashes when appropriate were mixed into their defence-first approach for the rest of the game.
Kylington
The 24 year old defender looked sublime yesterday. While his top speed wasn’t on show as much, his short game looked elite. One or two strides to separate himself from the checker then a hard pass to an open player. The Kings had a great chance when Phillip Danault got a step on Andersson and earned a potential breakaway. Kylington caught up to him with two strides and diffused it, sharp pass up and Lucic scores on the subsequent play.
The Coach is liking what he’s seeing too. Kylington is starting to pry powerplay minutes from Noah Hanifin’s grasp. He played the 2nd most minutes of all Flames last night with 21:14 of ice time.
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The fourth line
The newly coined “Full Pension Line” was on the ice for both goals against. Bad. They also drew a couple penalties including the powerplay that led to Lucic scoring another “power five” (five hole) goal. Good.
Still, you can’t be on for two goals against in ten minutes of ice time without hearing about it from Sutter. It will be interesting to see if Darryl does anything about it when he submits tonight’s lineup.
Game management
It was nice to see the Flames not playing down to the Kings early on. By the second period it was the Kings who started to play with more urgency to match the Flames’ tempo. This game could have easily been a snoozer, but instead the Flames kept the puck pressure high and the Kings followed suit.
That and Matthew Tkachuk lighting a fire under the Kings every seven minutes or so.
Valimaki sent down
Due to a catch in the CBA that discounts the year 23 year old Jusso Valimaki needed off to recover from a knee injury; the Finnish defender can be sent to the AHL without needing to clear waivers. Good news for all parties. As much as Jusso would like to be in the lineup, nobody wins with him missing out on ice time. Valimaki will join a red hot 11-2-2 Stockton team in California for a Friday-Saturday back-to-back and go from there.
The Ducks
Flames fans will remember a tight-to-the-belt overtime loss to the Ducks in game two of the 21-22 regular season on October 18. Tight games have become the 13-8-3 Anaheim Ducks’ calling card this season. They lead the league in games decided by one goal with 12. They have relied on both tight checking and the stellar goaltending of John Gibson to keep them in games.
Most recently, the Ducks prevailed in a high scoring 6-5 win over the Golden Knights on Wednesday. Sonny Milano and Calder candidate center Trevor Zegras led the offence with three assists each. While it is expected that the Ducks will eventually come back down to Earth, the Flames would do well not to take this team lightly.
Starting lineup likely to look the same with the exception of Daniel Vladar starting in net. With a 1.57 GAA and .946 save percentage through five games; the Flames are in good hands.
Gaudreau-Lindholm-Tkachuk
Coleman-Backlund-Mangiapane
Dube-Monahan-Pitlick
Lucic-Richardson-Lewis
Hanifin-Andersson
Kylington-Tanev
Zadorov-Gudbranson
Vladar
Lines will be updated at warmups.
Trevor Neufeld
Follow me on Twitter @Trevor_Neufeld
Calgary Flames Blogger • 
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