@boosbuzzsabres
The Calgary Flames are coming off of a solid 3-1 victory in Toronto over the Maple Leafs last night. They went into the game at Scotiabank Arena having won only once in their previous five games and were winless in their last three which includes an embarrassing 9-1 loss at home vs. the Pittsburgh Penguins. Two nights later they were able to right the ship somewhat in a 4-3 SO loss to the Washington Capitals before heading east to take on Toronto last night.
Calgary held the high-powered Leafs scoreless through two periods and they entered the third in a 0-0 tie before scoring two goals :35 seconds apart. Toronto closed the gap late in the third period before the Flames iced their 3-1 win with an empty-netter.
Tonight's matchup with the Sabres, on a back-to-back for Calgary, represents the end of a very interesting schedule as of late. The Flames finished a three-game road trip to Nashville, St. Louis and Colorado with two home games before heading east to visit the NY Rangers and the Montreal Canadiens. They then headed back to Calgary for two more games (PIT and WSH,) before heading back east to face Toronto last night and Buffalo tonight. As the Flames bounced between the Mountain and Eastern time zones the NHL afforded them only one night off between those seven games and they have them finishing this stretch on a back-to-back.
In all the Flames will have played eight games in 14 days making three flights covering the time zones. "It’s a bit of a weird schedule.” defenseman Mark Giordano told Luke Fox of Sportsnet. "We’re on this one for four or six games usually."
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Western Conference teams are accustomed to travel, although that Calgary schedule seems unusually difficult, with Fox pointing out that the Flames are slated to travel a league-high 84,882 kilometers (52,743 miles) while the Sabres of the Eastern Conference will have one of the lightest travel schedules at 51,915 kilometers (32,258 miles.)
Fox also points out that the figure above does not include the Flames preseason travel to China, where they played split-squad games against the Boston Bruins and Vancouver Canucks.
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Sabres bench-boss Phil Housley made some tweaks to his lineup against the Blue Jackets and it carried over into practice yesterday. He did not touch a red-hot top line of Jack Eichel centering Jeff Skinner and Jason Pominville nor did he mess with a very consistent checking line of Johan Larsson centering Zemgus Girgensons and Patrik Berglund. Since he put those lines together four games ago Buffalo is 3-0-1. Eichel, Skinner and Pominville have combined for 23 points (9+14) and are a cumulative +15. Larsson, Girgensons and Berglund have four points during that stretch, (1+3,) are a combined +5 and have given the opposition fits with their fierce forecheck.
With both of those lines doing their jobs well, Housley went about switching his centers moving Casey Mittelstadt between Conor Sheary and Sam Reinhart while Vladimir Sobotka centers Tage Thompson and Kyle Okposo.
Housley told the gathered media yesterday after practice that he didn't think Mittelstadt and Thompson were clicking during their last game against Columbus so he flipped the centers. It looks as if that will carry over into tonight's game as Housley is "just trying to find the right balance."
Thompson was back in the lineup against the Blue Jackets while forward Evan Rodrigues was out for the birth of his new son, Grayson.
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Housley also said that defenseman Jake McCabe will be a game-time decision tonight and is considered day-to-day right now with an upper-body injury. The 25 yr. old McCabe has been hot as of late with seven points (1+6) and a plus-4 while logging solid top-four minutes, most recently on the top-pairing with Rasmus Ristolainen.
With him most likely out for tonight's game, Housley juggled his d-pairings. Nathan Beaulieu, who's set to replace McCabe in the lineup, is back in a familiar spot as he's on the third pairing with Casey Nelson, the d-partner whom he started the season with. Marco Scandella and Zach Bogosian will continue to anchor the second-pairing while rookie Rasmus Dahlin gets the move up to the top pairing.
The Sabres have been easing Dahlin into the NHL game by putting him mostly in the bottom-four but it looks as if he and Ristolainen will form a much anticipated "pairing of the Rasmi." It's a left/right d-combo featuring two European players who can move the puck and get up into the play, especially Dahlin who's skating is unmatched amongst Sabres (and most NHL) defensemen.
Game time is 7 pm tonight.
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