As we all predicted, the Calgary Flames took game one of their murderer’s road trip on Tuesday night when they choked out the second-place Washington Capitals team en route to a 3-1 final.
Up next is the Tampa Bay Lightning—who may pose an even greater challenge.
To start, the Lightning are currently humming along through a six-game winning streak. Unlike the Capitals, they won't be playing their third game in four nights. Head Coach Jon Cooper’s crew has matching 4-1 wins over the Oilers and Kraken since returning from the Four Nations Face Off.
Taking in their most recent win over Edmonton, it’s tough to say whether the Lightning was rolling or the Oilers were dragging their feet.
A shoutout to Edmonton for keeping the Tampa Bay area well-fed on Wednesday.
One certainty tonight is that this is a Lightning group brimming with confidence, and likely giving Andrei Vasilevskiy the tap to go in net. The 30 year old Tyumen, Russia product has started the last eight games for Tampa, but enjoyed two weeks off during the Four Nations break.
The Hall of Fame lock has allowed just one goal in each of his last two games.
At a Glance
Calgary Flames (28-21-8, 64 pts) vs. Tampa Bay Lightning (33-20-4, 70 pts)
Last Ten: Calgary (4-5-1) Tampa Bay (7-2-1)
Time: 5:00 p.m. Mountain Standard Time.
TV: FDSNSUN, SNP, SNW
Keeping the Push
The Calgary Flames won their game over the Caps by committee.
With goals from Matthew Coronato, Jonathan Huberdeau and Martin Pospisil on Tuesday, the odds of seven different Flames players contributing on three goals again may be low; but perhaps we're seeing the offence finally starting to click.
Taking in the underlying stats, the Flames didn’t control the puck for most of the game.
Head Coach Ryan Huska relayed similar sentiments while addressing the media on Thursday. Good result, but they need to be better to beat Tampa. Especially in the skating category.
Lombo
Ryan Lomberg is going to be a fun one to watch tonight. He rarely gets along with Tampa Bay and the Flames fourth line is on fire heading into the game.
Ryan has two assists in two games since the resumption of the NHL regular season. Martin Pospsil has a goal and an assist and Kevin Rooney has a goal as well.
Huska opted to start the fourth line on Tuesday; a move that fired up the rest of the squad. When asked if he would do it again in the pre-game presser, Ryan opted for patience.
“We will see how the day goes. We will see how the day goes. They’d like it, but we’ll see.”
Huska had a big smile on his face. The room has captured a bit of lightning in a bottle, but can they do it against the
actual Tampa Bay Lightning?
Tonight will be a fun one. Reminder that it starts at 5:00 p.m. MST.
Calgary Flames Projected Lineup
Courtesy of Derek Wills.
@Fan960Wills
Huberdeau-Kadri-Coronato
Zary-Backlund-Coleman
Farabee-Frost-Sharangovich
Lomberg-Rooney-Pospisil
Bahl-Andersson
Hanley-Weegar
Solovyov-Pachal
Wolf
Vladar
Tampa Bay Lightning Projected Lineup
Courtesy of nhl.com writing staff.
Jake Guentzel -- Brayden Point -- Nikita Kucherov
Brandon Hagel -- Anthony Cirelli -- Gage Goncalves
Mitchell Chaffee -- Nick Paul -- Michael Eyssimont
Zemgus Girgensons -- Luke Glendening
Victor Hedman -- J.J. Moser
Ryan McDonagh -- Erik Cernak
Emil Lilleberg -- Darren Raddysh
Nick Perbix
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Jonas Johansson
Game time is 5:00 p.m. MST.
Calgary Flames Blogger • 
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