Happy Halloween everyone!
Tonight is the final game of the home stand for the Flames, which might be a good thing since they've fared better on the road so far this year. The last game was hard to swallow, as not only did the Flames lose in a heartbreaker of a shootout after being the better team for most of the game, but they also lost the services of Colborne, Stajan, and eventually Backlund in that game. This was coming after placing Raymond on IR earlier in the day. That's 4 key forwards in the span of 48 hours…ugly, ugly stuff to deal with. this has called for 2 more recalls in Granlund and Ferland. The good news is the drop off in skill is not much of one, if any, but the bad news is that the experience level at center is at an all-time low. Monahan, Granlund, Byron, Bouma, Jooris. This alone might be the undoing of the Flames tonight when they go against the experience of the Predators centers: Cullen, Ribeiro, Jokinen, Roy, Gaustad. I could look up the collective games played of those two groups, but we all know it's not even close. The Flames will need to lean heavily on their defense and goaltending, and have the forwards help out down low more than normal. This means that an offense that isn't exceptional and missing key players will have to go against the team with the best GAA in the entire league (1.78).
This is no shock, the Predators have a healthy Rinne and a d-core that might be the most underrated in the league: Weber, Josi, S. Jones, Ellis, Volchenkov, Eckholm. This is also a team that learned how to play defense from Trotz for years, and that doesn't necessarily leave when Barry does. Surprisingly, their penalty kill is in the bottom 10, and only percentage points ahead of the Flames' kill which was in the low 60s at one point. All they need is a couple goals a game to win, and they've been getting it so far. Ribeiro and Forsberg (stupid Capitals trading him for Erat. It's a good thing Latta has worked out for them) lead the team in points with 7 a piece, and Neal leads the team in goals with 5. Even though Weber already has 4 goals, only 1 has come on the power play that is operating at an anemic 7.4% and ranks 3rd last in the league. Obviously, like the Flames, their strength is 5 on 5 with a ratio of GF/GA of 2.00, ranking 2nd in the league behind Minnesota and just ahead of…the Panthers? So the Flames are going to need to be better than they were against Montreal when it comes to their power play, because they aren't likely going to score 5 on 5.
The lineups are total guesswork at this point with so many bodies going down and Colborne still a possibility for tonight (but unlikely).
Flames
Glencross-Monahan-Hudler
Gaudreau-Granlund-Jones
Ferland-Byron-Setoguchi
Bollig-Bouma-Jooris
Brodie-Giordano
Russell-Wideman
Smid-Engelland
Hiller
Predators
Forsberg-Ribeiro-Neal
Cullen-Roy-Smith
Jokinen-Wilson-Beck
Bourque-Gaustad-Nystrom
Josi-Weber
Volchenkov-Jones
Ellis-Eckholm
Rinne
Go Flames Go!