Will be interesting to see how the Flames contain McDavid tonight. I think the biggest part of it will be their incredibly aggressive forecheck. Oilers D are terrible as a group - especially at moving out the puck. Nurse is their best defencemen, and I have noticed that he always screws up under pressure. Their D as a unit aren't strong at moving the puck up the ice, especially under pressure.
So, if the Flames are effective on the forecheck again as they have been, while maintaining their solid defensive positioning keeping the centre on the ice behind the opposing centre until the puck is turned over, I think they will be able to dictate play all night.
Tippett is a good coach (I mean, he HAS to be looking at that team as a group). He will be making adjustments, but when you have a lousy team, you don't have many options on adjustments. Flames take this one handily.
As for the Draisaitl talk - he has the personality of an uncomfortable shoe. Just annoying and always dirty, but nobody notices it enough. That slewfoot on Tkachuk that game (the one when Backlund went after McDavid, and Tkachuk joined in) was dirty. Tkachuk tried to get him to fight - giving up a lot of size to him - but those gloves are cemented on. Tkachuk 'had to answer' for his hits on Kassian for some reason, and was vilified somehow even though he got rag-dolled by Kassian. It still irks me that Draisaitl didn't have to respond.
Tonight, I want to see Johnny start slashing and cross-checking Draisaitl back. With Ritchie on that line, I can guarantee you that Draisaitl won't dare retaliate. Funny how he goes after Gaudreau and Mangiapane, but even Tkachuk who is much smaller than him he wants no part of.
I also expect this to be a fairly spirited game. With how aggressive Calgary is on the forecheck and playing hard, I am assuming that Edmonton is going to respond again.
This is a game where Rinaldo and/or Robinson is an 'automatic in' - not sure it will be the case, but knowing Sutter, I can see him making a switch and getting one of them in the lineup - though there are ZERO players who deserve to be out (isn't that a nice change?). I have no idea what he is going to do with the lineup tonight. He will probably look at the roster on the Oilers, order the list from toughest to weakest, and make sure that the Flames have a tougher guy leftover, just in case. Or maybe he just sticks with the lineup that is working perfectly thus far. I have no clue.
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