Flames: 32-23-4, 68 points, 4th in the Pacific, 9th in the West, 16th in NHL.
Rangers: 36-16-6, 78 points, 2nd in the Metropolitan, 4th in the East, 7th in NHL.
Quote:
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“I told (the players) this morning the same thing that about a month, month and a half ago,” Hartley started, “If Gary Bettman, Day 1 at camp, would’ve stepped in our locker room and said ‘I have a deal for you. I’m taking you to this seven-game road trip, you’re starting your season now and I’m putting you in the eighth spot in a jam packed in a major club sandwich in the Western Conference are you taking it?’
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http://flames.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=754575
I couldn’t have said it better myself Bob. Regardless of how the other teams, the fanbase, the internal expectations, have all increased the pressure on this team, this is fun. This is gravy. This was supposed to be a lost season but has somehow put the Flames in the mix as a legitimate playoff team just 2 years into a rebuild. As much as we all want to see this team succeed and make the playoffs, they are already a major success. Sounds like a cat poster, right? Well all you have to consider is the leap in the standings they’ve made from last year. Ending up 4th from the bottom to being top half in the league is quite a jump, and almost everything has gone right for the Flames to make those jumps, but they’ve overcome some disappointing individual performances throughout the year too. All that being said, this is crunch time, and this is when you see the internal drive of players kick it up a notch. This is where we will see what this team is really made of.
So as for the Rangers tonight, Henrik Lundqvist is out with a vascular injury (blood vessel) so we’ll get the back up=advantage Flames, right? Not so sure about that. Cam Talbot has done a very good job in net so far, so good in fact that the Rangers signed him to a contract extension last Friday. Not bad for a guy that was signed as a 22 year old undrafted free agent. Over 2 seasons of spot duty in the NHL he has 28 games, a 14-9-2 record, 1.80 GAA, .936 Sv%, and 5 shutouts.
In the event Talbot doesn’t play very well, the Rangers have a strong defensive team as well. Ranked 5th in the NHL in GA/G at just 2.41, they have been led by an incredibly strong top four of Ryan McDonagh, Kevin Klein, Marc Staal, and Dan Girardi…nevermind that they also have the veteran Dan Boyle on this team. 5 on 5 they are elite, ranked 2nd in the league with a 1.28 F/A ratio. In fact, only one player who has played more than 10 games is a minus player: Tanner Glass with a woeful -15. The next closest regular player is Jesper Fast at +1, and they have 11 players who are double digit plus players. That’s an incredibly strong team at even strength, so the Flames will have to make the most of their chances, especially on the power play. However, the Rangers do own the 10th ranked PK at 83%, so it will be more tough sledding for the offense tonight.
You would think being a strong defensive team means you wouldn’t score as many goals, but the Rangers actually have the 2nd ranked offense in the entire league with 3.12 GF/G. Led by a bounceback superstar campaign by Rick Nash, the Rangers only have 2 players who are near a PPG pace; the previously mentioned Nash and Derek Stepan who missed 14 games earlier this year. Also a nice surprise has been Derick Brassard, who already has his best point production of his entire career this year at 47 points, 2nd on the team. This is a group that gets it done by committee, with 8 players scoring double digit goals, led of course by Nash’s 37 goals. They don’t get a lot of offense from their d-men, but both Klein and McDonagh have 20+ points. There aren’t a lot of stars on this Rangers team, but they are for real. They were in the Cup Final last year, and after a slow start, have definitely found their game again.
This is by far the toughest matchup on this road trip for the Flames, so they’ll need to bring their “A” game to win tonight. Even though the Rangers haven’t lost in regulation in 8 games, and are 9-1-2 in their last 12, they’ve also mostly had weaker competition with 8 of those games coming against teams currently out of the playoffs, and most of those really far out of the playoffs.
Roster Notes: A bit of a lineup change for the Flames as Paul Byron was placed on IR and Matt Stajan is on leave for the impending birth of the Stajans' child. To fill their roster spots are the recently recalled Emile Poirier and Michael Ferland. It's doubtful they get in tonight against the Rangers, but they could get a couple of games on this trip. Smid is skating again, but no timeline on his return. As mentioned previously, Henrik Lundqvist is out with a vascular injury, and Jesper Fast is still nursing a knee injury and will not play tonight.
Flames
Gaudreau-Monahan-Hudler
Bouma-Backlund-Jones
Glencross-Colborne-Jooris
Raymond-Granlund-Bollig
Giordano-Brodie
Russell-Wideman
Diaz-Engelland
Ramo
Rangers
Nash-Brassard-Zuccarello
Kreider-Stepan-St. Louis
Hagelin-Hayes-Miller
Glass-Moore-Stempniak
McDonagh-Girardi
Staal-Klein
Moore-Boyle
Talbot
p.s. I will be taking a self-imposed break from the forums starting today for about the next 2 weeks. Unfortunately, I'm just too busy the rest of this week to post and I will be going on a baby-moon with my wife next week, as we are expecting our first child. I'm hoping others can chip in to contribute to the GDTs while I'm gone.
Go Flames Go!!!