Edit: Upon taking the ice for warmups it was announced that Noah Hanifin is day-to-day with an undisclosed injury. Micheal Stone will draw into the lineup and the pairings below will be adjusted shortly.
The Calgary Flames face off against the 3-1-2 Pittsburgh Penguins today at 5pm in what should be a high energy matchup.
With Kris Letang, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Bryan Rust, and Jeff Carter all out of the lineup, you may be wondering who will be dressed against the Flames this afternoon.
Despite their injury issues, they’ve been finding ways to win. The 2016 and 2017 Stanley Cup winners have reverted to a strong commitment to team defence and a skeleton offence including the likes of Danton Heinen, Evan Rodrigues and 23 year old Drew O’Connor are among a few sitting around a point per game in offensive production. O’Connor will be one to watch and evaluate as he put up one point in ten games last year — then followed it up with five points in five games to start the 21-22 regular season.
Here is the projected Flames lineup.
Gaudreau-Lindholm-Tkachuk
Coleman-Backlund-Pitlick
Lucic-Monahan-Lewis
Mangiapane-Dube-Ritchie
Hanifin-Andersson
Kylington-Tanev
Valimaki-Gudbranson
Markstrom
Matching intensity
The Penguins have beat higher skill rosters by out working them and moving the puck with greater urgency. Despite missing their core of stars, they are tied for 6th in goals per game with a solid 4.0 mark. The Calgary Flames will win if they can stay on top of the little things; winning puck races, capitalizing on the chances they do get, and of course finding ways to beat backup Casey DeSmith, who posted an underwhelming .872% and 4.92GAA in one start against the best offence in the league in the Florida Panthers. Expect the Penguins to be going hard tonight to compensate for starting their backup.
Capitalizing on defensive weak points
The Penguins are coming off a 5-1 loss to the Lightning where they were caved in at 5v5. Defenseman John Marino and winger Jason Zucker were -4 on the night. The Flames have proven they can roll four lines that all out-chance opponents during this road trip. If all four lines are firing again — expect a lot of goals. There is only so much insulating Penguins Coach Mike Sullivan can do with line matching if every line presents a scoring threat. Although he has improved in some areas, defenceman Mike Matheson is also prone to turnovers when pressured.
Enjoy the game,
Trevor Neufeld
Follow me on Twitter @Trevor_Neufeld
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