Flames: 17-12-2, 36 points, 4th in Pacific, 7th in West, 13th in league.
Blackhawks: 20-9-1, 41 points, 2nd in Central, 3rd in West, 4th in league.
A 4 game losing streak. We knew this team would have these this year, but did anyone imagine that it would feel so unexpected? Is it strange to think that the team may feel so disappointed in their recent lack of success? You have to keep in mind how this team was slated to be in the bottom 3 this year, but have shown so much more than that to this point in the season. The question really becomes this: Was it a hot streak that went all the way back to January of last year, or is this just a blip in the data that has shown this team to be a legitimate playoff contender?
Well the flames are still in a playoff spot right now despite a 4 game losing streak. They also have a double digit positive goal differential (+11) the hallmark of a playoff team. Despite the recent offensive struggles the Flames own the 8th best offense at 2.94 GF/G. The goals against are solidly in 15th at 2.64 GA/G. The powerplay is still over 20% (20.8%) and is 11th in the league. The penally kill, a sore spot for the first 20 games that was sitting at the bottom of the league, has been improving and is now nearly at 80% (78.2%) which is the mark at which it can be considered a reliably solid kill. The only problem has been the diminishing 5 on 5 ratio, which is now down to just 1.03 and 16th in the league. Oh, and people can talk all they want about the Corsi stats that have indicated the Flames should be sucking more, but let's look at the simple raw stat of shots on goal against per game. The Flames are 10th in the league allowing 28.5 SA/G. There is a strong correlation with GA as almost all of those top 10 teams are also top 10 teams in GA/G. The larger concern seems to be the low SF/G for the Flames, as they still sit in the basement in that category at just 27.7 (tied with Montreal for 27th). This is part of the reason why the offense has diminished a little, but there's no doubt the team has struggled to bury chances and they've done plenty to create enough offense in a game to win. All teams go through these stretches where nothing goes their way, but it's time to bear down and work their way through it. The few defensive miscues they've made have ended up in goals against. The puck just doesn't want to land on a friendly stick to end up in a goal for. The winning habits are still there as evidenced over the last few games where we outplayed and outshot the opposition and still ended up with the loss. One of the leaders needs to step up and have a big game and we need our goaltending to steal us a game.
Cue a meeting with the Chicago Blackhawks, where almost every win we've had against them over the past couple years (of which there have been several) have largely been due to a brilliant goaltending performance. We've had our share of good fortune against one of the elites of the league, but we can only hope that we won't need good fortune to beat them. They lost their first in 9 games last night to the New York Islanders and were badly outshot in the process (41-25), but Scott Darling was brilliant and nearly let them steal points in a game they were not very sharp. In fact their recent streak was due in part to his strong play where he averaged a .939 Sv% over his last 4 games. Thankfully the Flames will be facing Raanta today and not Darling or the injured Crawford. Darling is just another of the 'Hawks goaltenders who look exceptional so far this year. Looking at the 3 goaltenders, it's eerie how similar their stats are. All 3 are hovering around the 2.00 GAA mark and all 3 have a Sv% of .930 or better. That's some crazy reliance on goaltending to get the job done. Are they just doing a great job of limiting the great scoring chances or are all 3 of their goaltenders bailing them out regularly? It's probably due primarily to their elite penalty kill, 1st in the league at just over 90%. One thing is for sure, the 'Hawks do a great job of creating offense, leading the league in SF/G with 35.1 and scoring 2.97 GF/G. Their shooting percentages have finally started to normalize, despite a stretch earlier this year where they were struggling to score 2 goals a game. In fact, last night was the first time since their last loss to Vancouver that they had not scored at least 3 goals in a game.
Nobody is particularly hot on either team, but it should be noted that Giordano had yet another 6 game point streak snapped against Pittsburgh. Both teams are relatively healthy with their top players except for Corey Crawford for Chicago and Mikael Backlund for Calgary sitting out.
There are no reports on the lineup tonight, but Corey Potter was recalled for the injured Ladislav Smid. Lineups are speculation at this point. Raanta is the confirmed starter for Chicago.
Flames
Colborne-Monahan-Raymond
Gaudreau-Granlund-Hudler
Glencross-Jooris-Jones
Bollig-Stajan-Byron
Giordano-Brodie
Russell-Wideman
Diaz-Engelland
Ramo
Blackhawks
Saad-Toews-Hossa
Versteeg-Richards-Kane
Bickell-Shaw-Sharp
Carcillo-Kruger-Smith
Keith-Seabrook
Hjalmarsson-Oduya
Dahlbeck-Rozsival
Raanta
Go Flames Go!!!