It's a long and winding road for the Flames, but so far, so good. Two wins in a row and tonight they go hunting for win #3 as the Flames Express rolls into Columbus for a date with the Blue Jackets.
A bit o' Blue Jackets news (
www.foxsports.com)
Quote:
Two surging teams with hot goaltenders face off Wednesday night when the Calgary Flames continue their road trip with a visit to Nationwide Arena to take on the Columbus Blue Jackets.
The Flames (12-8-0) have won two in a row at the start of their six-game trip and three of their last four overall. They’re 6-2 so far in November games.
The Blue Jackets (13-7-1) have equaled a season high with a four-game win streak and they’re 5-3-1 this month.
Both teams won the road Monday night. The Flames defeated the Capitals 4-1 in Washington and the Blue Jackets held on for a 3-2 victory over the Sabres in Buffalo.
The Flames could find it challenging to score against Blue Jackets goalie Sergei Bobrovsky.
The two-time Vezina Trophy winner is carrying the Blue Jackets while they struggle to generate goals. In Bobrovsky’s last five starts, he is 4-1-0 with a sterling 1.18 goals-against average, a .962 save percentage and one shutout.
Bobrovsky is expected to make his sixth consecutive start against the Flames.
“(The Flames) have a lot of similar traits as us,” Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno said. “You’ve got the high-powered offense, the great defensemen and a good goalie. So I’m expecting a great matchup and an exciting game because of the talent out there. We look forward to playing these guys.”
Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella is considering moving Foligno to a wing in an attempt to jump-start his offense. Foligno does not have a point in the past 12 games, which equals the longest stretch in his career.
Tortorella might be inclined to make that switch once center Alexander Wennberg returns. Wennberg has missed three games with an upper-body injury and continues to be day to day.
“Whatever they think is necessary to help our team and be a good lineup, I’m all for it,” Foligno said.
The Blue Jackets will get one of their centers back in the lineup. Lukas Sedlak was activated off injured reserve on Tuesday after missing the last 13 games with an ankle injury.
Sedlak was expected to be out as long as six weeks but returned in about four weeks after suffering the injury in practice on Oct. 23. He has scored two goals in eight games this season.
“You don’t feel 100 percent every time when you go back,” Sedlak said. “I feel good enough that I think I can help the team and be good out there.”
The Flames have scored seven power play goals in the past four games and the Blue Jackets rank last in the NHL on the power play. But Calgary is last in the league in penalty killing, which could present Columbus with an opportunity to solve their issues with the man advantage.
Left winger Artemi Panarin has been the Blue Jackets’ most effective offensive weapon with four goals in the last seven games. He leads the team in scoring with 15 points.
Right winger Cam Atkinson, who signed a seven-year contract extension last week, will play in his 400th game for the Blue Jackets on Wednesday.
“It’s one of those milestones where it’s pretty special,” Atkinson said.
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A bit o' Flames news (
www.calgaryflames.com):
Quote:
Tonight's game is the first in a two-game season series between the Flames and Columbus Blue Jackets. They will wrap up their series on Mar. 29 when the Blue Jackets visit the Scotiabank Saddledome. Last year, the Flames went 1-1-0 against Columbus, picking up their victory at Nationwide Arena on Nov. 23, 2016. Kris Versteeg led Calgary in scoring against Columbus last year with two assists.
NOTABLE NOVEMBER
The Flames are 6-2-0 this month and have outscored their opponents 33-30 over that eight-game run - a marked difference from last year's run in November when they went 7-8-1. Johnny Gaudreau has led the way in scoring with seven goals and 16 points in November. Sean Monahan trails him with six goals and 12 points this month.
JOHNNY'S RUN
Gaudreau heads into tonight's game on a 10-game point streak, putting up eight goals and 19 points in that stretch. The winger leads the Flames in scoring with 31 points and is third in the NHL scoring race, trailing just Tampa Bay's Steven Stamkos (35 points) and Nikita Kucherov (33 points). Gaudreau is also riding a five-game multi-point streak, becoming the first Flame to accomplish the feat since Jarome Iginla did so in the 2001-02 season. He has registered a point in all but three of the Flames games this season and has 10 multi-point games to his name this year. Gaudreau has assisted on 11 of Monahan's team-leading 12 goals this year as well.
CLOSING THINGS OUT
The Flames are 7-0-0 when leading after two periods this season, carrying over that trend from last year's run when they went 33-0-1 when leading after 40:00.
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Lineups from
www.dailyfaceoff.com, unconfirmed and subject to change:
FLAMES
Gaudreau-Monahan-Ferland
Tkachuk-Backlund-Frolik
Bennett-Jankowski-Jagr
Versteeg-F Hamilton-Brouwer
Giordano-D Hamilton
Brodie-Hamonic
Bartkowski-Stone
Smith (unconfirmed)
BLUE JACKETS
Jenner-Dubinsky-Atkinson
Panarin-Dubois-Anderson
Motte-Foligno-Bjorkstrand
Milano-Schroeder-Hannikainen
Werenski-Jones
Johnson-Carlsson
Murray-Nutivaara
Bobrovsky (unconfirmed)
..and as everyone remembers from school, in Fourteen Hundred and Ninety-Two, Columbus sailed the Ocean Blue. However, in November of Twenty -Seventeen, Columbus' cruise is gonna be a bit choppier thanks to a certain felt miscreant:
Go Flames