I'll give you just one guess as to who this player is.
Flames: 40-27-6, 86 points, 3rd in the Pacific, 8th in the West, 15th in NHL.
Stars: 35-28-10, 80 points, 6th in the Central, 10th in the West, 19th in NHL.
I can't remember the last game we didn't play against a hot team. Ok, maybe not Philadelphia the second time, and definitely not Toronto, but we played Colorado twice, Columbus, St. Louis, Anaheim, Detroit, Boston, and Ottawa. Every time we played those teams they were either in the middle of, just ending, or beginning a hot streak. I'm surprised our record is as good as it is in the last 10 (6-2-2). Well tonight is no different as the red hot Stars come to the 'Dome. 8-2-0 in their last 10, beating teams like Chicago, Pittsburgh, Washington, and the New York Islanders in that stretch, losing only to Tampa Bay and St. Louis. They're not playing a particularly different brand of hockey than they have all year, but they're finally getting results. They score a lot, 2nd in the league in GF/G, but they also give up a lot ranked in the bottom 5 in GA/G. Special teams for the Stars are surprisingly mediocre on both ends, as the PP is only 14th compared to their 2nd ranked offense, yet their PK is moderately better than their poor GA, operating at around 80%. Their goaltending has been the biggest reason for their poor season. Lehtonen has been better of late, but still has a Sv% of just .907 and a GAA of 2.82. Their backups have been atrocious all year as both Lindback and now Enroth have Sv%s of .875, with a 3.71 and 3.35 GAA respectively. Something tells me the Stars are not committed to defense as much as they should be, so expect a full on offensive assault tonight and lot of chances going both ways.
Slightly good news for us is that the Stars are possibly going to be without their leading scorer Jamie Benn (who has traditionally been a Flame killer too). He suffered a small knee injury in the last game against Buffalo and is questionable for tonight. They still have Seguin, Spezza, and their very talented offensive d-men in Klingberg and Goligoski. Don't forget guys like Hemsky and Eakin as secondary threats. Still, there's no doubt that losing a 70 point player and captain like Benn hurts the Stars a lot, leaving a hole on that top line that someone like Patrick Eaves will have to fill.
For the Flames, the secondary scoring came through in the last game after a mini drought. David Jones and Lance Bouma both had 2 point nights en route to a big win over Colorado, essentially ending their season. One can only hope that more secondary scoring comes in tonight as the Flames try to do the same to the Stars playoff hopes. Even if Dallas were to win their last 9 games in regulation, it would only give them an 80% chance at making the playoffs. A loss tonight would drop their chances to essentially 0%. The Flames need that same killer instinct they showed against Colorado, with a healthy dose of luck included, to beat a team that is showing real desperation at this time of year. These are the absolute toughest games for any team on the playoff bubble: Facing a team right behind them playing for their season.
Their only other meeting of the year so far came near the end of that famous 8 game losing streak: A hard fought, close 2-1 loss. The Flames were struggling to score goals at the time and the defense and goaltending were rounding back into form, but they just couldn't quite find a way to win over the struggling Stars. I have a feeling this will be a little different tonight as both teams are playing very well at the moment.
Playoff Chances: Down 3.8% to 71.9% with the Kings huge win on the road in NY after playing the previous night. Seriously...I can't believe L.A. won. Thankfully Vancouver came back to win (I can't believe I just said that) over Winnipeg to offset some of the Kings' hit to our chances. The good news is that the OOT has no games of significance for our playoff chances tonight. A win for the Flames increases their odds by 6.8%...a loss drops their chances by 13.5%.
Roster Notes: As previously stated, Benn is questionable for tonight's game with a knee injury. Trevor Daley is close to returning from a knee injury of his own that kept him out of the last few weeks, but it's not known if he'll play tonight or not. Valeri Nichushkin, who's been out since November with hip surgery, is finally ready to play for their AHL team, but it's unlikely he'll be back until the end of the season. The Stars have also been missing Rich Peverly and Travis Moen for most of the season, and while Moen is now considered "healthy" he's questionable for tonight's game. The Flames have no significant updates to the roster. Shore and Byron continue to nurse injuries, and are unlikely additions to the lineup.
Flames
Gaudreau-Monahan-Hudler
Bouma-Granlund-Jones
Colborne-Backlund-Jooris
Raymond-Stajan-Bollig
Russell-Wideman
Brodie-Engelland
Schlemko-Diaz
Ramo
Stars (a bit of a guess without Benn)
Eaves-Spezza-Seguin
Roussel-Eakin-Hemsky
Garbutt-Fiddler-Sceviour
McKenzie-Horcoff-Ritchie
Jokipakka-Goligoski
Nemeth-Klingberg
Jordie Benn-Demers
Lehtonen
Go Flames Go!!!