The Carolina Hurricanes come stumbling into the Scotiabank Saddledome tonight, the only winless team in the league. They were already a weak team coming into the season, but injuries to Skinner and the Staals has dropped the bottom out of their offensive attack, but their one saving grace is a power play that has operated at 25% to start the season. That's good because the goals for/against 5 on 5 is 2nd worst at 0.50, meaning they get scored on twice as many times as they score at even strength. A large part of that is due to a porous defense that was missing their "top" defenseman in Sekera to start the year, but looking at Cam Ward's ugly, ugly numbers (3.87 GAA, .847 Sv%) makes one wonder if he's going to last in the league much longer, even as a back up. Khudobin has played the last 2 games, but it could be time for Ward to get another shot in net tonight. The Hurricanes are also missing the services of Nathan Gerbe, Patrick Dwyer, and John-Michael Liles and Skinner returns to the lineup. It could be a night for the Flames offense to pad their stats. Fun fact: Brody Sutter, son of Duane, has been recalled and will likely play tonight in front of friends and family. Nice gesture by the Hurricanes. Also, Victor Rask makes his pro debut in front of a Calgary crowd where he played his junior career with the Hitmen.
The Flames, on the other hand, played arguably their most complete game of the year the other night against a very skilled Tampa Bay Lightning team. They shut down their offense for almost 3 full periods, no easy feat, but a late defensive breakdown led to a goal sending it to overtime, where the Lightning found a way to take the 2 points on the second night of back to backs on the road. The Flames won't necessarily be angry about their effort, but they might be about the result. The 2 points were well within their grasp against a top team. They will likely use that as motivation to get back in the win column tonight. Johnny Gaudreau comes in as the Flames hottest offensive player, scoring 3 points in 2 games (all of highlight reel quality) after a healthy scratch. Monahan has not been productive on the scoresheet to start the year, but he's facing tougher competition (2nd only to Backlund) and has had very similar chances to last year without the ability to finish. He was suffering from the flu for a lot longer than he let on and should be at 100% now, meaning he's due for a bit of a breakout soon.
This is one of the easier opponents in the league at the moment, so anything less than a win at home will be a disappointment for the Flames. No reason to think the lines will change, but updates will be provided throughout the day.
Flames
Hudler-Backlund-Byron
Glencross-Colborne-Jooris
Raymond-Monahan-Gaudreau
Bollig-Stajan-Bouma
Giordano-Brodie
Russell-Wideman
Smid-Engelland
Hiller
Hurricanes
Tlusty-Nash-Semin
Skinner-Rask-Lindholm
Terry-McClement-Boychuk
Malone-Sutter-Murphy
Sekera-Faulk
Harrison-Gleason
Hainsey-Bellemore
Ward?
Go Flames Go!