Calgary Flames
Don’t Change A Thing
The Flames need to ride the wave of success they had on Saturday afternoon into tonight’s game with Ottawa.
Calgary Flames @ Ottawa Senators, 5 PM MT, Canadian Tire Centre, Ottawa ON
TV: ESPN+, SNW – Radio: Sportsnet 960
Calgary Flames (10-10-2, 22 pts) – Ottawa Senators (7-15-1, 15 pts)
The Flames got some good news on Sunday as Jacob Markstrom participated in the goalie portion of practice, signaling he could be ready to return to action soon. He is currently still listed as day to day, so he’ll most likely either be out tonight or a game time decision.
Speaking of good news, how about that Flames performance on Saturday? The Flames pumped in six goals, defeating Ottawa in commanding fashion 6-3. Calgary’s big guns all showed up with Johnny Gaudreau, Matthew Tkachuk, Mikael Backlund and Andrew Mangiapane all having multi point games and were a force for a full 60 minutes. Now, imagine that when Geoff Ward switched his lines up and put together lines that actually play well together, that the Flames would play well together. Weird right? The 3M Line was reunited to great success. Elias Lindholm was moved up to be with Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan. That worked as well. Even the new look bottom six was effective as well.
Where Calgary needs to tighten up tonight is on the PK. The man down units were overworked again, having to kill six penalties and only being successful three times. Ottawa was able to take advantage of the Flames mistakes to the tune of three PPGs on the day. That’s partly on them, but it’s also on Calgary for taking six penalties on the day. That might fly against Ottawa, but it won’t work on the higher end teams in the North Division.
If the Flames can string together another night of goal scoring it would do wonders for their confidence. Saturday was only the fourth time in 10 games that Calgary had scored more than three goals and of the other six times they had been held to one goal. Maybe the new look lines can continue to build on the success they had on Saturday and start to head in the right direction. The 6-3 Flames team that hit the ice on Saturday looked more like what this squad was supposed to be this season, not the 6-1 disaster that was Thursday. Folks, Ottawa isn’t a good hockey team. There’s no reason to think the Flames can’t have a repeat performance if they just roll the lineup out that was put together by Geoff Ward. If it ain’t broke(ish), then don’t try to fix it.
Starting Goalies (E=Expected, C=Confirmed)
Flames: Rittich (E): 2-4-1, 2.77 GAA, .907 SV%
Senators: Murray (E): 5-10-1, 3.72 GAA, .884 SV%
Team Leaders
Flames: Goals- Gaudreau (9), Points- Gaudreau (20), PIM- Tkachuk (19), Save%- Markstrom (.909)
Senators: Goals- Tkachuk (9), Points- Tkachuk (16), PIM: Tkachuk (34). Save%- Murray (.884)
What’s Happening With The Opposition?
Ottawa Senators Coverage: Silver Seven Sens
Last Time Out
Calgary Flames 6 – Ottawa Senators 3
Players To Watch
Calgary Flames
Andrew Mangiapane (F): 4 points in last 5 games
Ottawa Senators
Drake Batherson (F): 8 points in last 5 games
by Mark Parkinson
