The Calgary Flames finish out their road trip today with a 5pm game against the 9-5-0 Boston Bruins. Both teams are at the tail end of a back-to-back and both teams won 5-2. The Flames beat the Islanders and the Bruins beat the Flyers.
Following the results of yesterday’s match, the Flames now sit squarely at 2.00 goals against average on the season. Good for 2nd place in the NHL. That defence will be challenged by a red hot Bruins offence led by winger David Pasternak, who has nine points in his last five games and is coming off a two point performance against the Flyers.
I don’t like to get ahead of things too much, but I really don’t talk enough about the Flames in these game day blogs. Vegas oddsmakers have Calgary sitting at a 91.5% chance of making the playoffs. While it seems pretty obvious that the Flames look like a playoff team this year; it’s important to consider the transformation the team has made since this point in the season last year.
While Darryl Sutter is a top five Coach in the league (maybe that’s just my opinion speaking), there is a lot of personal growth involved as well. Lots of players deserve full credit for what they’ve accomplished so far. So many individuals took major steps forward with their game. Enjoy this season. Flames fans deserve it.
Gaudreau-Lindholm-Tkachuk
Coleman-Backlund-Mangiapane
Dube-Monahan-Pitlick
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Hanifin-Andersson
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Vladar
Discipline, discipline, discipline
The Flames have been beaten by two factors this season. Exceptional goaltending and minor penalties. They rank 7th in the league in minors taken. It’s important that they ride the line to keep an edge to their game, but the dumb penalties still need to be ironed out.
Back(lund) at it
After a tough run, longtime Calgary Flame had a fantastic game last night. One assist, 64% in the dot and almost six minutes in special teams minutes. Hopefully he keeps it going.
Hot bread
Andrew Mangiapane clearly loves road trips. He has five goals in four games and has had four in the last two. He’s at the point where Coaches will be line matching him. The bruins have the best shut down line in the league in Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak. It will be interesting to see how Bruins head Coach Bruce Cassidy matches lines against the Flames.
Enjoy the game,
Trevor Neufeld
Calgary Flames Blogger • 
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