The Flames and Lightning met just over 2 weeks ago, and the Flames suffered a hard fought 2-1 OT loss, and certainly didn't look out of place against the East's top 3 team, and 4th in the league based on point%. How are the Lightning doing it? Scoring…a lot. They have scored 3.5 GF/G, just behind the Penguins' ridiculously unsustainable 4.09, and they also own the 3rd best PP% at 25%. That's really no surprise when you look at the talent they have, but it's coming from more than just Stamkos as Tyler Johnson and Nikita Kucherov have been excellent on the 2nd line with 14 and 11 points respectively. Special teams are a strength as the PK% is almost 85% (top 10), putting their combined percentages at 110% (really, really good in case you were wondering). Yet, this is a team that only ranks in the middle of the pack in terms of GA/G at 2.58 (same as Toronto…that's not great). 5 on 5 the Lightning are strong as well, with a F/A ratio of 1.21, ranking them 9th, but behind the Flames at 1.42. Want to know who the worst are? Buffalo at 0.39 are the worst by a country mile, but just ahead of them are those lovable losers, the Oilers, at 0.62.
The Flames continue this Eastern Conference road trip after 2 wins in the first 2 games against some very good teams in Montreal and Washington. The Flames didn't play their best game against Washington, but gutted out a dramatic OT win with a clutch goal by Monahan (no surprise) and a brilliant save by Hiller in the last second of the game after letting in a less than stellar goal off the back boards. It looks like that save earned Hiller another start tonight, as he's been rumored to get the go-ahead. "Win/play well, and you'll continue to start" is now the Hartley mantra with regards to the goaltending situation, and you would imagine that if Ramo doesn't start tonight, he'll get the start against the woeful Panthers offense on Saturday to get some game action. Hiller's scorching hot play will be needed tonight against the Lightning's offensive attack (outlined above), but the team defense will need to do a good job of limiting their opportunities. They did just that when they played them before allowing only 1 regulation time goal and 2 overall, which is well below the Lightning's season average. Hold them to 2 goals again and the Flames have a good chance to win this game. Fail to do so and it could be a long night. The offense has continued to produce despite the loss of key forwards, and hopefully Gaudreau has fully recovered from the flu as they will need his creativity to score on a solid defensive team with a very good goalie in Bishop.
Flames
Glencross-Monahan-Jones
Gaudreau-Granlund-Hudler
Baertschi-Byron-Setoguchi
Bollig-Bouma-Jooris
Giordano-Brodie
Russell-Wideman
Smid-Engelland
Hiller
Lightning
Filppula-Stamkos-Callahan
Palat-Johnson-Kucherov
Morrow-Boyle-Brown
Drouin-Namestnikov-Paquette
Stralman-Carle
Garrison-Gudas
Brewer-Sustr
Bishop
Go Flames Go!