Flames: 26-30-3, 55 points, 6th in Pacific, 12th in West, 26th in NHL.
Islanders: 32-19-7, 71 points, 3rd in Metropolitan, 6th in East, 11th in NHL.
The Flames come back home after a California road trip that yielded little in the way of positive results. Losers of 2 straight, the Flames are looking to showcase some talent before the trade deadline, as several players are rumored to be on the block, including, but not limited to, Jiri Hudler, Kris Russell, and David Jones. The veteran upcoming free agents are not likely to be retained by the rebuilding Flames, especially at the prices they are likely to collect. While Russell remains day to day, Hudler has done well to increase his trade value and overall contract value heading into free agency. After a very tough start, he's managed points in 2 straight games, and is averaging 0.85 points per game over his last 15 games or so. Couple that with the rumors that there are a LOT of suitors for Kris Russell. The Flames should get some decent rebuilding assets, even if it's just those two being moved before the trade deadline. Russell has remained out of the lineup for a couple of weeks now, even though he was never listed as anything more than day to day. That reeks of the management intentionally sitting him to avoid further injury since he has a proclivity for blocking shots.
More positives for the Flames of late include the strong play of all the recalled Stockton players. One could argue that outside of the top line, the strongest players for the Flames against the Kings last game were Ortio, Wotherspoon, and Nakladal. The trio made a case to continue playing games the rest of the way, regardless of who were to get healthy, or be traded or not (Hiller....oh please god let it be Hiller). Giordano even had some praise for Wotherspoon yesterday.
Quote:
“I think he’s playing great," Giordano stated. "He’s best attribute is probably how calm and poised he is with the puck.
"He’s a smart player. He makes really good reads and really good decisions. I think he’s been really good since being (called) up."
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http://flames.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=870408
I couldn't have said it any better than Giordano. Wotherspoon looks like he's finally making the turn from AHLer to NHLer, mostly with how he reads the play and makes decisions. This is hardly shocking since most defensemen take quite a few years after their draft year to make the jump to the NHL, and it speaks to the patience that is required when developing young defensemen. If Wotherspoon has a strong string of games down the stretch, I think you could pencil him into the starting lineup next year with Russell likely moving on and Smid more than likely not being healthy.
As for the Islanders, oh no big deal, they're just coming into the Saddledome looking for their 3rd straight road win and winners of 6 of their last 8 games. A big part of that is the play of the scorching hot John Tavares. After struggling to put up points for a good chunk of the season, Tavares has 20 points in his last 16 games. Try finding a player hotter than him over that stretch...it's not easy. That's with Okposo going rather cold of late too. After a hat trick against the Oilers (*snicker*), Okposo has not scored a goal in his last 7 games, although he does have a string of assists over that span, and has subsequently been moved off the Tavares line. The Islanders have a pretty balanced attack overall, scoring the 5th most GF/G with 2.83. They already have 6 double digit goal scorers, with another 2 players stuck on 9. It also helps that they have one of the better power plays at 19.9%.
However, they defend pretty well too allowing just 2.45 GA/G. Although, since they give up over 30 shots against per game, a lot of that success is due to the goaltenders and penalty kill. While Halak has a solid .918 SV% over his 32 games, the real hero has been backup (or 1B depending on how you see it) Thomas Greiss. Greiss has managed to sport a .930 Sv% over 24 starts, which is superb for that amount of playing time. But beyond that, the Islanders own the absolute best penalty kill percentage at an astounding 87.2%. Even though the Flames power play is no longer last and has done well of late, it will be tough sledding against the Isles tonight.
Roster Notes: Russell is still listed as day to day, and no word on whether he'll play tonight or not. My guess is he won't play another game for the Flames before he gets traded. No word on a starter for the Flames, but I would guess that Ortio earned another start after his performance against L.A. As for the Islanders, they will be without Grabovski, De Haan, and Boulton for tonight as they are all listed as day to day.
Flames
Gaudreau-Monahan-Hudler
Colborne-Backlund-Frolik
Ferland-Bennett-Jooris
Bouma-Stajan-Jones
Giordano-Brodie
Engelland-Hamilton
Wotherspoon-Nakladal
Ortio?
Islanders
Bailey-Tavares-Strome
Kulemin-Nielsen-Okposo
Lee-Nelson-Clutterbuck
Martin-Cizikas-Bernier
Leddy-Boychuk
Hamonic-Strait
Hickey-Zidlicky
Halak
Go Flames Go!!!!!!