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Should the Flames Acquire Anthony Duclair? Flames-Blues Game Day |
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The Calgary Flames and St. Louis Blues kick off a two-game series tonight in what should be a bit of a temperature check for both teams.
The Blues will be seeking to build momentum after a 3-0 over the Minnesota Wild on Sunday. Prior to that, they lost a game to the Montreal Canadiens — the third-worst team in the NHL since the beginning of December with a 5-12-2 record.
Calgary is in a similar situation. The Flames are coming off a loss to a team with the worst record in the NHL — the Chicago Blackhawks. 10-25-4. You can argue that the loss can be pointed at Stone misplaying his coverage on the first two goals, or Markstrom allowing yet another easy first goal, but the fact of the matter is that Calgary has shown in the last calendar year that they’re done losing to basement teams. Sunday’s overtime loss was an undeniable step backwards. Tonight is an opportunity to right the ship.
You could argue that the loss was rock bottom for the 19-14-8 Flames.
You could also argue that the Flames have had about five rock bottoms this season.
Low Points in 22-23
A 4-1 loss to the Predators on November 3 was one of seven straight losses. Nashville was also struggling at the time. The Flames took the opposition for granted coming out of the gate despite having lost the previous two games.
An anemic 3-0 loss to the Capitals on November 25 was possibly their worst effort offensively all season. Zero drive in an afternoon game on the fifth stop of a six-game road trip.
December 9 was a bad one. A 3-1 loss to the Blue Jackets featuring seven minor penalties taken and a blue line getting called out by Darryl Sutter as struggling to remember their roles.
Not to take a kick at the fourth wall in frustration, but my vote for the truest rock bottom game is December 16 against the St. Louis Blues. A 5-2 result and the final sequence of a five-game losing streak.
While losses to basement teams like the Blue Jackets, Oilers, or Blackhawks are tough to reason with, it was the way that the Flames dropped that game that leads to it being my pick.
All five Blues goals scored against the Flames on December 16 were sequences where the shooter walked into the slot unchallenged. That kind of performance is the Anti-Sutter. Darryl’s system ideally leaves the opposition with as little room as possible to make a play.
You get the puck to start the breakout? Bam. A winger is in your space. You catch a turnover in the neutral zone? A center is attacking your stick within a second or two. Dig the puck out of a dump-in situation? Boom. A defenceman is putting you on ice.
December 16th was just so far from that method. Tonight we get to see how far Calgary has progressed from the on-ice product that night.
It should also be noted that December 18 marked the beginning of a 3-0-1 road trip as well as the on-ice product improved significantly.
The lineup as well as a few notes on tonight’s game.
Calgary Flames Projected Lineup
Practice lines courtesy of Pat Steinberg. @Fan960Steinberg
Dube-Lindholm-Toffoli
Lucic-Kadri-Huberdeau
Mangiapane-Backlund-Coleman
Lewis-Ruzicka-Duehr
Hanifin-Andersson
Weegar-Tanev
Zadorov-Stone
Markstrom
Vladar
Duehr Die
Tonight we get a look at the development of 25-year-old Walker Duehr. His combination of size, 6’2”/210lbs, and speed are enticing.
While Sutter has been reluctant to play younger players, you can’t put Sunday’s result on the young guns. Quite the opposite.
Veteran Mistakes
Apologies for this all being a bit on the negative side, but Sunday was arguably Michael Stone’s worst as a Calgary Flame. Calgary likely would coast to a win if Stone hadn’t blown his coverage on the first two goals.
They weren’t complex plays either. All he had to do was cover the forward in front of the net on both goals. That’s all.
Jacob Markstrom deserves a bit of credit too. After all, he did get chased from his net 35 seconds into the second period. Hanifin deserves most of the credit for that goal against given that he failed to take away the pass on a 2-on-1, but Markstrom simply couldn’t afford not to save that.
The 32-year-old is expected to start tonight — and frankly, that’s concerning.
A Stacked Deck
Let’s just put a few stats and trends out there.
The last time these two teams played each other, Jacob Markstrom put up a .792 save percentage. On Sunday, Markstrom saved pucks at a .727 rate. The St. Louis Blues offence is humming lately. They’re tied for fourth-best since January 1 at 4.25 goals per game over four games.
It seems like Daniel Vladar would be the guy to start tonight.
Anthony Duclair
The Florida Panthers have $4,898,555 put away on LTIR and only 2.85 million in cap space. The return of both Patrik Hornqvist and Anthony Duclair is looming. It appears that the team needs to make a trade.
Panthers GM Bill Zito and Flames GM Brad Treliving have a bit of a working history. “A bit” might be understating it. Between Matthew Tkachuk and Sam Bennett, the Panthers have been a landing spot for high-profile Flames players of late.
Flames media is abuzz with the notion of acquiring Jonathan Huberdeau’s former linemate, Anthony Duclair. There’s some sense to it. They have proven chemistry, Duclair has proven he can be a left-shot right wing with Huberdeau, Duclair’s speed plays an essential role in helping Jonathan’s patient style along.
There lies the problem. The guy had his Achilles tendon surgically repaired during the offseason after a training incident. Is it a good bet that the 27-year-old is ready to help in the immediate future?
Duclair had 31 goals and 27 assists last season on Huberdeau’s line. He’s signed through next season at a three million dollar annual average value.
Game time is 6:00 pm MST. Catch the broadcast on Sportsnet West in Canada and BSMW in the States.
Trevor Neufeld
@Trevor_Neufeld
Stats via nhl.com and naturalstattrick.com.
Calgary Flames Blogger • 
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