I hope you brought your time suit because we’re taking a quick ride before we dig into Johnny’s return tonight.
Familiar Feelings
Let’s go back to the end of the dreaded Mike Keenan Era in Calgary. Following a six-game first-round elimination at the hands of the well-to-do 2009 Chicago Blackhawks — they reached the Conference Finals and lost to Detroit — Flames General Manager Darryl Sutter felt it was time to make a change. Rumours swirled that Head Coach Keenan was no longer effective in his well-known button-pressing style.
An interesting quote from Roberto Luongo in 2002 on Keenan’s penchant for pressing buttons. This instance pertains to him swapping goalies when he felt the time was right to do so.
"Not a big deal. [Keenan] does it so much that we expect it. If he's your coach and you're an NHL goalie on the bench, you have to be ready, just in case."
A few weeks later, Brent Sutter put into motion his exodus from Eastern Conference living. Citing “family reasons” the head coach of the New Jersey Devils resigned from his position with a year remaining on his three-year contract. Fans, media, personnel and ownership expressed their dislike for the move. After all, why would anyone not want to be part of the solid trajectory that the Devils were on? What was wrong with New Jersey?
Flash forward to December 28, 2010. The Flames were 16–18–3 — good for 24th in League standings — at the request of the Team President Ken King, Darryl was asked to resign. Jay Feaster was to take his place serving as interim general manager.
The team did slightly better to finish the season. 41-29-12 finished the team three points out of a playoff spot. With a record of 23-43-11, the Edmonton Oilers finished with a nine-point cushion on last place. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins was their reward for a truly miserable season.
Sutter’s departure is worth mentioning because of what happened at the 2011 NHL Entry Draft.
With a new philosophy at the helm, Flames fans were thrilled to see some more skill-oriented picks on the board.
#13: Sven Baertschi
#45: Markus Granlund
#57: Tyler Wotherspoon (The pick immediately following #58 was Nikita Kucherov, who Feaster hoped would fall to the fourth round)
Pick number 104 finally arrived and that selection changed the course of Flames history for the next eleven years.
From the Dubuque Fighting Saints, the Calgary Flames selected 5’7”, 145lbs Johnny Gaudreau. An ultimately less likely selection with Darryl at the helm.
Gaudreau went on to put up 609 points with the Flames in 603 games across eight seasons in Calgary.
Following a dramatic will-he won’t-he departure from Calgary this offseason, we finally get to welcome the diminutive forward back to the city — and he’s coming in hot.
Three points in his last two games tied him with two other Columbus players since January 19.
Patrick Laine and a 24-year-old rookie defenceman named Nick Blankenburg.
The Kid
Blankenburg may be one to watch tonight. Also a player of small stature, 5’9” 174lbs, but playing an ultimately less forgiving position as a left defence. His career has started out well — 10 points in 20 games. Seven points in thirteen this season.
The Michigan native has found himself starting to receive pinch-hitting duty as the point shot on the first power play unit.
That move is likely out of desperation by head coach Brad Larson.
Zach Werenski’s season ended in November with a separated shoulder and torn labrum. An injury similar to Chris Tanev’s.
Also dealing with an injury is Adam Boqvist, a big piece in the return for Seth Jones. Boqvist has zero goals and six assists despite averaging 2:11 of power play time across his 16 games played this season.
This is all to say that the Blue Jackets’ power play is struggling in its current iteration. It ranks last at 14.9%.
This may be seen as the norm for the Blue Jackets this season. 30th in both goals for and against. 2.57 and 3.89 respectively. 31st in shots against. When they lose, they tend to lose decisively. 19 of their 30 losses have been by three goals.
Suffice it to say that Calgary has their hands full tonight. Facing a hot Johnny Gaudreau and Patrik Laine, a pile of rookies, and a perpetually injured defence — the club certainly won’t be sliding into the underdog role.
Projected Lineup — Calgary Flames
Courtesy of Pat Steinberg.
@Fan960Steinberg
Dube-Lindholm-Toffoli
Lucic-Kadri-Huberdeau
Mangiapane-Backlund-Coleman
Pelletier-Lewis-Duehr
Hanifin-Andersson
Weegar-Tanev
Zadorov-Stone
Vladar
Markstrom
Pelletier Sticks
A strong performance against the Tampa Bay Lightning has earned 21-year-old rookie Jakob Pelletier another start. His 6:49 of ice time even included a 43-second shift on the power play.
Another interesting fact about his debut? He posted the second-best Corsi percentage at 5v5 at 77.78 — behind only Walker Duehr. (80.00CF%) Pelletier out-attempted the opposition 7-2 at even strength.
We can wax about his stats all we want. Here’s a great shift where he fetches the puck on a backcheck and it leads to him getting a clean chance in the low slot.
It is shifts like these that will keep you in a Flames jersey. Regardless of how big you are.
Sutter’s Antics
Darryl Sutter appears to have enraged the media by pretending to not know anything about Jakob Pelletier as well as calling out the media for being trouble-starting by nature in a recent availability. The people taking that as anything but a joke need to give their heads a shake.
It appears that some tension is developing between the press and the Flames head coach. It wasn’t just Eric Francis getting mad. Everyone there seemed to sound off about how he was being unfair. You expect a bit more capacity for jest among that group. At some point, people need to grasp that media Sutter and head coach Sutter are two very different animals.
Vladar Starts
Daniel Vladar gets his second consecutive start for just the second time this season. Who else suspects that Darryl’s antics may be drawing attention away from a bit of a goalie controversy? The media was simply too trolled to bring up any other troublesome questions and narratives. It that’s the case — hats off to what was a shrewd play.
Game time is 7:30 pm MST. Catch the broadcast on Sportsnet West, Sportsnet One and TVAS in Canada. HULU and ESPN+ in the States.
Trevor Neufeld
@Trevor_Neufeld
Stats via nhl.com, naturalstattrick.com and eliteprospects.com. Quote from Luongo courtesy of the Associated Press.
Calgary Flames Blogger • 
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