Fresh off of an emotional 4-1 win over the Anaheim Ducks, the Calgary Flames will now step into game one of the Frost-Farabee Era tonight when they face off against the red-hot Detroit Red Wings at the Scotiabank Saddledome.
At a Glance
Calgary Flames (25-18-7, 57 pts) vs Detroit Red Wings (25-21-5, 55 pts)
Last Ten: Calgary (6-4-0) Detroit (6-3-1)
Time: 8:00 p.m. Mountain Standard Time.
TV: CBC, SN, CITY, FDSNDET
Hitting the Ground Running
Joel Farabee, 24, will play on the right side of Nazem Kadri and Jonathan Huberdeau tonight. Morgan Frost will be centering Yegor Sharangovich and Martin Pospisil on Calgary’s second (arguably third, maybe first) line.
That’s quite the bump for both players. Farabee has averaged a mere 15:12 per game this season; the second lowest of his career only surpassed by 14:06 during his rookie season in 2019-20.
Likewise, Frost had been given diminishing deployment under John Torterella, going from average of 16:21, to 15:30, to 15:18 over the past three seasons.
With that said, the two were given solid linemates in terms of talent.
Farabee most commonly played on a line with Sean Couturier and Travis Konecny and Frost usually centered Owen Tippet and Matvei Michkov.
We’ll see if there is instant chemistry. Flames Head Coach Ryan Huska has historically put Martin Pospisil with players that he wants to get going. That line will be easily the fastest unit at Huska’s disposal tonight.
Speaking of speed.
Getting Faster
It should be no surprise to hear that the Flames have been one of the slower teams in the National Hockey League this season.
NHL Edge uses advanced player tracking to deliver data for shooting and skating speed over an NHL season.
While it’s a very cool application, the data is provided in such an
eclectic manner that most fans aren’t interested in trying to make sense of it.
One example of this? They don’t rank teams or players. You have to look up everything individually and build your own spreadsheet. If a team or player is below average, they won’t say exactly how far below average they are.
With that said, I’ve combed through the Flames players and Martin Pospisil is the only exceptional skater on the team. Check out Calgary's team skating metrics chart below.
Being close to the middle is bad. This chart implies that the Flames are pretty close to the bottom of the league in speed bursts over 20mph.
As an aside, the top speed category was Pospisil turning on the Jets during overtime in game one of the season versus the Canucks.
We can get more into exactly
how slow the Flames are over the Four Nations break, but it’s worth pointing out that Thursday’s trade made the Flames a faster team. Farabee isn’t exactly a burner, but he’s above league average. Frost is in the 85th percentile for both 18-20mph speed bursts and 20-22mph speed bursts, so it will be interesting to watch how he plays on a line with Pospisil.
Speaking of lines.
Calgary Flames Projected Lineup
Courtesy of Pat Steinberg.
@Fan960Steinberg
Huberdeau-Kadri-Farabee
Coleman-Backlund-Coronato
Sharangovich-Frost-Pospisil
Lomberg-Bishop-Klapka
Hanley-Andersson
Bean-Weegar
Barrie-Pachal
Wolf
Vladar
Detroit Red Wings Projected Lineup
Courtesy of nhl.com writing staff.
Marco Kasper -- Dylan Larkin -- Lucas Raymond
Alex DeBrincat -- Andrew Copp -- Vladimir Tarasenko
Elmer Soderblom -- Michael Rasmussen -- Jonathan Berggren
Christian Fischer -- Joe Veleno -- Dominik Shine
Ben Chiarot -- Moritz Seider
Simon Edvinsson -- Albert Johansson
Erik Gusafsson -- Justin Holl
Cam Talbot
Alex Lyon
Another Streaker
First Washington and their 8-1-3 January, then Anaheim averaging over five goals a game on their three game winning streak, now it's Detroit, who refuse to let the fat lady sing on their playoff aspirations.
The Red Wings have won four straight. Most recently, they came back from a 2-0 deficit to defeat the Oilers in the shootout. The freshly hired Todd McLellan has the team playing with purpose and the group has outscored the opposition 13-6 over their winning streak.
2022 8th overall selection Marco Kasper, as well as Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond, lead the offense with five points apiece over their last four appearances. Former Flames netminder Cam Talbot has three of the four wins, and Alex Lyon has the other.
Scoronato
Originally credited with a hat trick on Thursday, Matthew Coronato will have to settle for two goals and a primary assist after it was discovered that Blake Coleman had, once again, gotten his greedy stick on a net-bound shot.
Consistency is the name of the game for sophomore NHLers. The Greenlawn, New York product had gone four games without hitting the scoresheet prior to powering the Flames past the Ducks.
Thursday was the third multi-goal night this season for the 2021 13th overall pick.
Game time is 8:00 p.m. MST.
Calgary Flames Blogger • 
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