With little time to reset, the Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers are set to play a rare Battle of Alberta tonight that features both teams finishing out the tail end of their respective back-to-back.
For the Flames, the team enters the 6:00 p.m. game coming off a rousing 6-3 over the Philadelphia Flyers. The once-troubled Jonathan Huberdeau recorded two goals and two assists on the night bringing the Saint-Jérôme, Quebec product into a 12-way tie for fifth in scoring across the NHL.
Early season stats. Gotta love ‘em.
A 2-0-0 start is great fun, but it may be a good idea to temper expectations. You only need to look back to 2022-2023 to find another dream season that promptly turned into a nightmare.
All we’re saying is don’t raise your expectations. The moment you do, the Flames will start losing in miserable fashion, as is custom in Calgary.
Speaking of losing in miserable fashion.
The Oilers took a page out of the 2022-2023 Flames Playbook on Saturday night. First of all, they lost to Chicago, who has been Calgary’s kryptonite for two seasons now.
Flames vs. Blackhawks since Oct. 2022
1-4-1
Goals For: 12
Goals Against: 20
Second, the Oilers massively out-chanced, out-shot, out-everything'd the Blackhawks; a calling card of the 2022-2023 Flames. Edmonton finished the night with a whopping 96 shot attempts to Chicago’s 37, simply an absurd number.
The Oilers also outpaced the Blackhawks 17-1 in high danger chances. For all of their work, the Hockey Gods laughed and gave Corey Perry their first goal in the third period.
The Battle of Alberta
With that all said, we have a general narrative tonight. Despite being 2-0-0, the Flames don’t necessarily need the win, morale is quite high, and the consensus is that the team enters the night as the underdogs.
Meanwhile, players, coaches, and management within the Oilers organization are surely chomping at the bit to get their first win. Corey Perry and Derek aside, no one has particularly played well after six periods. Expectations are high and they’ll be playing their arch-rival in front of their home crowd.
Oh, and tomorrow is a statutory holiday, so said home crowd may be letting loose a little more than usual.
This all sets up for a pretty fun game for Flames fans. If they get beat: it was only a matter of time. If they upset an already upset team – well that’s great too.
Calgary Flames Projected Lineup
No morning skate today. Goaltenders and lineup changes will be confirmed at warm ups.
Honzek-Kadri-Kuzmenko
Zary-Backlund-Coleman
Huberdeau-Pospisil-Mantha
Lomberg-Kirkland-Klapka
Weegar-Miromanov
Bahl-Andersson
Bean-Pachal
Wolf
Vladar
Edmonton Oilers Projected Lineup
Also no morning skate. Update at warm ups.
RNH-McDavid-Hyman
Skinner-Draisaitl-Arvidsson
Janmark-Henrique-Brown
Podkolzin-Ryan-Perry
Ekholm-Bouchard
Nurse-Dermott
Kulak-Emberson
Stecher
Pickard
Skinner
Under My Skin
It’s early, but three Flames are in the top 15 for penalties drawn. Martin Pospisil and Ryan Lomberg both sit in a nine-way tie for second place with three a piece. Nazem Kadri has two and is in a 28-way tie for 11th.
Kadri finished fourth last season with 43 total. If we switch over to rates per 60 minutes of ice time among players logging 100:00 or more, Pospisil finished 25th with 1.72, Kadri finished 27th with 1.71, and Lomberg finished 30th with 1.68.
That’s quietly going to be a strategy for the Flames this season. Three of four lines currently feature one of those players. The Flames have had eight power play opportunities in two games so far and they’re currently converting at 37.5%.
Puck drop is around 6:10 p.m. MST. Catch it on Sportsnet and TVA Sports.
Calgary Flames Blogger • 
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