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Five things to watch when the Calgary Flames take on the Vegas Golden Knights:
1. A heavyweight fight
You always want to be playing your best hockey down the stretch and head into the playoffs on a high. Both teams are doing that right now.
After a few weeks of up-and-down play, the Flames have found their footing and started to dominate opponents at 5v5 again. Vegas, a strong 5v5 team to begin with, has taken it up another level since adding Mark Stone.
As such, it's hardly surprising to see each team at or near the top of the league in several key metrics over the last 10 games.
The Flames have long looked like contenders and, with Stone in the mix, the Golden Knights look capable of making some noise once again.
It's going to be fun watching these talented, and rested, teams duke it out tonight.
2. Vegas' '2nd' line
When the Golden Knights acquired Stone, many thought he'd find himself playing right wing alongside William Karlsson and Jonathan Marchessault. Gerard Gallant elected to put him with Max Pacioretty and Paul Stastny instead. While it's still early, the returns thus far make that decision look awfully good.
In ~60 minutes together, they've controlled 61% of the attempts, 56% of the chances, and have yet to concede a goal against.
They're likely going to see plenty of the Johnny Gaudreau line, which will be a stiff test for both parties.
3. A new face in the top-6
Since February 9th, Andrew Mangiapane has been lights out at 5v5. His on-ice numbers (60 CF%, 64.55 SCF%) are through the roof and he has generated a ton individually. He leads the team in high-danger looks (16) and ranks 2nd in total scoring chances (27). The only guy ahead of him – Sean Monahan – has logged 61 more minutes in that span.
Mangiapane is finally being rewarded for his efforts with an opportunity on the 2nd line alongside Mikael Backlund and Elias Lindholm. If the last few weeks are any indication, he's ready to take advantage of it.
4. David Rittich's response
He was not good vs Toronto. Quite the opposite. While some goals were certainly not his fault, he did allow a pair he would definitely want back and, any way you slice it, a .812 save percentage is not close to good enough. I think tonight's game is really big for Rittich. If he bounces back, he'll earn himself some more rope and likely start Sunday's big rematch against Vegas. If he struggles, Smith will have a chance to reclaim the net with a remotely competent performance Thursday night against Arizona.
5. Shaking up the top pairing
After a shaky performance vs Toronto, Bill Peters has dropped T.J. Brodie to the 3rd pairing and moved Rasmus Andersson back to the top unit. Personally, I like the decision. Andersson and Mark Giordano have played very well together thus far – they own a 56 CF%, 57 SCF%, and +9 goal differential in 102 minutes. I think it's important to see if that can continue against a very good team that could potentially be your 1st round opponent.
Here are the projected lineups:
Calgary
Johnny Gaudreau - Sean Monahan - Matthew Tkachuk
Andrew Mangiapane - Mikael Backlund - Elias Lindholm
Sam Bennett - Mark Jankowski - Austin Czarnik
Michael Frolik - Derek Ryan - Garnet Hathaway
Mark Giordano - Rasmus Andersson
Noah Hanifin - Travis Hamonic
T.J. Brodie - Dalton Prout
David Rittich
Vegas (via DailyFaceoff.com)
Jonathan Marchessault - William Karlsson - Reilly Smith
Max Pacioretty - Paul Stastny - Mark Stone
Brandon Pirri - Cody Eakin - Alex Tuch
Ryan Carpenter - P.E. Bellemare - Ryan Reaves
Nate Schmidt - Deryk Engelland
Brayden McNabb - Shea Theodore
Jon Merrill - Colin Miller
Marc-Andre Fleury
Puck drop is just after 10:30 eastern and can be seen on SN1 and ATTSN-RM.
Numbers via NaturalStatTrick.com
Recent posts:
Five observations from a somewhat deceiving loss to Toronto
On the Jason Zucker trade that almost was
Notes on the Fantenberg trade, missing out on Stone, and more
Hotstove: midseason Norris Trophy picks
Hotstove: midseason Hart Trophy picks
Predicting the Pacific Division standings
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