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Rookie Gets a Shot – Former Flame Sits – Personal Demons – Game Day |
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The Calgary Flames kick off a three game road trip tonight against the Chicago Blackhawks at the United Center.
Fresh off a 2-1 win where the LA Kings appeared to do their best impression of the 2022-2023 Flames, the visiting team will have to defeat both a Blackhawks group that has looked sharp of late, as well as their own personal stigmas that accompany facing off against teams placed in the bottom five of League standings.
Let's dive in.
Calgary Flames (20-14-7, 48 pts) vs Chicago Blackhawks (14-27-2, 30 pts)
Last Ten: Calgary (5-3-2) Chicago (2-8-0)
Time: 5:30 p.m. Mountain Standard Time.
TV: Amazon Prime
The Rookie
22 year old Rory Kerins will play the first NHL game of his career tonight. Here is a look at the lineups courtesy of Derek Wills. @Fan960Wills
Huberdeau-Kadri-Pospisil
Coleman-Backlund-Coronato
Kerins-Sharangovich-Pelletier
Lomberg-Rooney-Duehr
Bahl-Andersson
Hanley-Weegar
Bean-Pachal
Wolf (Starter)
Vladar
Moving to the left wing might be an odd change for the Caledon, Ontario product. Playing on a line with a shoot-first center will also be a curveball.
Kerins was recalled on Friday afternoon despite going scoreless in his last two appearances with the AHL Calgary Wranglers. The five-foot-eleven, 190-pound forward has 21 goals and 13 assists for 34 points in 34 games this season for the Flames affiliate.
His linemates tonight aren’t exactly tearing it up.
Jakob Pelletier picked up a secondary assist, and Yegor Sharangovich got the primary on a Connor Zary goal on Dec. 31 against the Vancouver Canucks.
An offensive masterclass.
It may be a good time to remind folks that Ryan Huska handpicked Connor Zary last season as a catalyst for Nazem Kadri days prior to a Nov. 1, 2023 showdown against the Dallas Stars. The Saskatoon-born rookie ignited Kadri for 13 points in 14 November games last season.
The 2022 Stanley Cup winner had only two points in nine October games prior to Zary’s promotion.
Perhaps we’re seeing that again. Maybe Pelletier needs another target for playmaking. Maybe Kerins will benefit from having Sharangovich as a shot threat to attract attention from himself in the offensive zone.
Time will tell. Good luck and congratulations to #86.
Brodie Sits
Former Flames top-pairing defenceman TJ Brodie will be eating popcorn tonight. The Chatham, Ontario product is a -18 in 40 games in 2024-2025.
Brodie played 634 regular season and 30 postseason games with Calgary. He ranks fifth in franchise scoring among defencemen with 48 goals and 218 assists for 266 points.
Prime Time
It is highly recommended that you catch the warmups for this Amazon Prime broadcast. Just music and a few slow-motion replays. No talking heads. Amazon does it right.
The game starts at 5:30 MST.
Personal Demons
Tonight will be another test for the new era Flames. Currently 2-0-0 against the Blackhawks this season, tonight serves as an opportunity to sweep the season series.
Yes, it’s kind of a big deal to sweep the 32nd place team in the NHL.
Calgary went 1-4-1 against Chicago in the two seasons prior to 2024-2025. 0-2-1 against the Blackhawks in 2022-2023, the Flames missed the playoffs by just two points.
An entire playoff run missed because they couldn’t sewer the worst team in the NHL.
Penalties Killing
Calgary managed to kill all three Kings powerplays on Saturday night. Given that the result of the game was a 2-1 win, you could certainly call that an x-factor.
The Flames have struggled for most of the season on the PK. The team found new depths of late, killing only three of their seven penalties since the start of 2025.
Killing six of ten certainly looks better than three of seven. The Flames currently rank 30th with a 70.8% PK rate over 41 games.
Chicago, to their credit, has a 12th placed powerplay that has converted at a 22.9% rate. Their group appears to have gone cold of late, going a mere 14.3% in five January games.
Chicago Blackhawks Projected Lineup
Morning skate lines courtesy of Charlie Roumeliotis. @CRoumeliotis
Bertuzzi-Bedard-Mikheyev
Foligno-Dickinson-Teravainen
Dach-Nazar-Reichel
Hall-Donato-Maroon
Martinez-Jones
Vlasic-Crevier
Allan-Kaiser
Mrazek
Söderblom
Game time is 5:30 MST.
Calgary Flames Blogger • 
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