On the heels of a 5-4 shootout loss to the New York Islanders and amidst a 4-1-2 November surge, the Calgary Flames will face off against the 7-8-4 Seattle Kraken. Seattle sits but one win away from a .500 points percentage and a fleeting grasp of the top Wildcard spot in the West. Calgary sits two wins short of the .500 mark, but with Arizona, Anaheim and Seattle all sitting tied and three points (18) up on the Flames (15), tonight presents a prime opportunity to drag themselves back into the playoff race after a tumultuous 2-6-1 October.

Let’s dig into a few notes, observations and thoughts on tonight’s battle of the beleaguered.

Potential Payback
With only 16 days separating a 6-3 Calgary win over Seattle, it’s likely that the Kraken will want to cut a piece out of the Flames as payback. Adding to the tension is a possible grudge held by Jared McCann and his teammates after Andrew Mangiapane received a match penalty for his falling crosscheck to the back of the Seattle sniper’s neck.

It’s tough to speculate on whether Jared was injured on the play, but there are some statistics to back up the notion. McCann played only 11:29 of that game and has only one goal in seven games since.

Clutch Pospisil
The Calgary Flames have experienced an unprecedented turnaround starting with their win over Seattle. That game also featured the debut of the Zary-Kadri-Pospisil line.

Connor, Nazem and Martin are first, second and fourth in Flames scoring respectively since the win and the team has gone 4-1-2 over that span. One impressive note is the timing of Martin Pospisil’s production. Four of his five points have been either to gain a lead or tie the game up. The only exception being a saucer pass setup to Blake Coleman to bring the game within one during the second period of the matchup against Ottawa on November 12.

A Rest for Ruz
The production hasn’t been there for Slovak Adam Ruzicka since returning from injury-related time off. The 6’4” pivot has zero points in six since leaving the game on October 24th after taking a borderline hit from New York’s Jimmy Vesey. The injury is believed to be shoulder-related.

Calgary Flames Projected Lineup
Courtesy of Eric Francis. @EricFrancis
Sharangovich -Lindholm-Mangiapane
Zary-Kadri-Pospisil
Huberdeau-Backlund-Coleman
Greer-Dube-Duehr

Weegar-Andersson
Hanifin-Tanev
Zadorov-DeSimone

Vladar
Markstrom

Seattle Kraken Projected Lineup
Courtesy of Mike Benton. @BentonMike
McCann-Beniers-Eberle
Schwartz-Wennberg-Tanev
Tolvanen-Gourde-Bjorkstrand
Kartye-Bellemare-Yamamoto

Dunn-Larsson
Oleksiak-Borgen
Dumoulin-Schultz

Grubauer

Game time is 8:00 pm MST. Catch the broadcast on Sportsnet in Canada and ESPN in the United States.


Trevor Neufeld


@Trevor_Neufeld


Stats via espn.com and nhl.com.

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