Following a 3-1 loss dictated by special teams on Tuesday, the 2-4-1 Calgary Flames are set to play the 2-2-1 St. Louis Blues tonight. There is a lot of news to talk about, so let’s dig in.
Encouraging Signs
It’s tough seeing the Flames drop to 2-4-1 on the season, but there was a lot to like from Tuesday’s game.
Blake Coleman, had a goal and four shots. The veteran right winger appears to be heating up.
Nazem Kadri carried the puck to much more dangerous areas and used his speed much better. The 33 year old even dropped the selfish act and started making some creative passes in the third. Goaltender
Jacob Markstrom made some ten-bell saves and
Nikita Zadorov played the best period of hockey in his life in the third.
A turnaround is coming. It might be tonight against the Blues.
Ruzicka
Oddly enough,
Adam Ruzicka is still practicing after sustaining a shoulder injury on Tuesday. I have a piece waiting for a rainy day that elaborates further on this topic, but how much should the players trust the Flames organization when it comes to medical clearance?
Andrew Mangiapane sustained a shoulder injury in the preseason of 2022 and played all 82 regular season games before a
“precautionary MRI” revealed that he needed surgery. Here is Mangiapane during a chat with former Flame
Luke Gazdic on Luke’s
Mitts Off With Luke Gazdic podcast this summer. Mind that Luke also ended his career due to shoulder issues. These two played for Calgary’s affiliate in the AHL together for a while under head coach Ryan Huska.
Gazdic:
“Was it bothering you a lot last year? Like time to time before you made the decision to have the surgery? I would assume that there were a lot of incidents that happened before you came to that decision.”
Mangiapane:
“Yeah, I think it happened I’d say pretty early. First couple games. Just kinda kept I guess slipping out, just like the sub-blocks going down. Fall to brace and it would just kinda slip out and whole kinda arm would get numb. You know the feeling.
Come to your own conclusions, but common sense has the now 27 year old getting an MRI before he plays, say, 82 professional hockey games.
Then there is the original core member of Calgary’s 2010’s rebuild,
Sean Monahan.
Anyone willing to venture a guess as to how much money Sean lost out on being allowed to play through so many serious medical issues requiring surgery? Wrist surgery, multiple hernias, and hip surgeries all coming close to or after season’s end.
Monahan celebrated his 29th birthday this October. His first UFA payday was a 1-year, $2,000,000 deal. His partner in crime during their days in Calgary,
Johnny Gaudreau, started his UFA era with a 7-year, $68,250,000 contract a year before that during the offseason of 2022.
Ruzicka, 24 years old and at least three seasons away from UFA status, would do well in getting a second opinion.
The Second Powerplay Unit
In a bit of a surprise this morning,
Dryden Hunt took Ruzicka’s place practicing on Calgary’s PP2 unit. The Flames must expect Ruzicka back soon.
Koona t’chuta, Solo?
For those that don’t speak Huttese, the language used by
Jabba the Hutt among others in the rolling Hutt Palace, the above translates to:
Going somewhere, Solo?
Today, defenceman
Ilya Solovyov can proudly say
“Yes, I am, Jabba.” The 23 year old left-shot defenceman has been recalled from the Calgary Wranglers and will take
Jordan Oesterle’s place on the blue line.
The Belarusian defender brings more size (6’2” 207lbs) to the back end and does less risk-taking in the offensive zone. He has a goal an assist and an even 0 rating through four games with the Wranglers this season.
I am Just a Boxer
It’s hard to say that we saw
Nikita Zadorov’s best game as a Flame on Tuesday provided that he scored a powerplay-free hat trick in game 82 last year. His advanced stats weren’t much above 50% in most categories and on the box score it said he had two shots, two hits and zero points.
Yet, to the eye test, the 6’6” Russian put the team on his back and put the Rangers on their ass for the entire third period. He was easily the best defenceman on the ice. In terms of characters in Orwell’s Animal Farm, Nikita easily would fit the role of
Boxer. The allegory for the Russian working class and frankly, one of the few animals getting things done on the farm.
Let’s hope things work out better for Nikita than they did for Boxer. No spoilers.
Calgary Flames Projected Lineup
Huska didn’t run lines or pairings today in practice, so we’re doing some projecting until warmup.
Huberdeau-Lindholm-Sharangovich
Mangiapane-Backlund-Coleman
Greer-Kadri-Duehr
Hunt-Dube-Coronato
Hanifin-Weegar
Gilbert-Tanev
Zadorov-Solovyov
Markstrom
Vladar
Special Teams
Given that Calgary started Sunday’s game against Detroit with a 100% penalty kill rate, you could expect a regression to the mean a bit. It’s been a bit overboard in that regard. The Flames are now 88.9% and essentially lost the last game by two power play goals scored in the second period.
Luckily or unluckily, their opposition tonight has had issues on the power play. Painful 6.7% kind of issues. The question is, when does that stat start returning to a respectful number? The Blues have a 37.5% power play conversion rate against Calgary in their last ten games.
The Blues
It appears that there will be two hot messes playing at the Saddledome tonight. Here is what Brayden Schenn had to say about their 4-2 loss to Winnipeg on Tuesday.
"I think we just have to raise our battle level. (We're) not gonna generate chances if we're not gonna check as hard as we need to... We've got to find a way to generate more - two goals isn't gonna do it night in and night out."
The Blues have work ethic issues, the Flames have execution issues.
Howdy-Ho Neighbourino!
Jake Neighbours gets another chance to play in front of his hometown tonight. The 21 year old has two points in two games against Calgary.
St. Louis Blues Projected Lineup
Courtesy of Matthew DeFranks.
@MDeFranks
Saad-Thomas-Kyrou
Buchnevich-Schenn-Kapanen
Toropchenko-Hayes-Neighbours
Sundqvist-Blais
Leddy-Parayko
Krug-Faulk
Leddy-Bortuzzo
Perunovich
Hofer
Binnington
Game time is 7:00 p.m. in Calgary and 8:00 p.m. in St.Louis. Catch the broadcast on Sportsnet in Canada and Bally Sports in the States.
Trevor Neufeld
@Trevor_Neufeld
Stats via espn.com, eliteprospects.com and naturalstattrick.com. Quote sources from Mitts Off With Luke Gazdic. Brayden Schenn quote sourced via nhl.com.
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