After a scary collision into the boards on Saturday night that saw him depart the game vs. Minnesota, Oliver Kylington was back skating on Monday. A good sign, considering the incident gave the Scotiabank Saddledome quite the scare as the Flames defenceman remained still on the ice for several seconds.
POINTS LEADERS
FLAMES
Johnny Gaudreau — 51 GP, 20 G, 45 A, 65 PTS, +40
Matthew Tkachuk — 51 GP, 26 G, 33 A, 59 PTS, +33
Elias Lindholm — 51 GP, 23 G, 28 A, 51 PTS, +39
WILD
Kirill Kaprizov — 49 GP, 24 G, 39 A, 63 PTS, +16
Mats Zuccraello — 43 GP, 17 G, 36 A, 53 PTS, +19
Kevin Fiala — 50 GP, 17 G, 27 A, 44 PTS, +7
SPECIAL TEAMS
WILD: PP — 20.0% (18th) PK — 78.7% (19th)
FLAMES: PP — 22.3% (11th) PK — 84.5% (3rd)
Minnesota has lost five of their past six games, a frustrating stretch for the group. Former Flames netminder Cam Talbot is expected to start for the Wild, which will be the first time he’s faced his former team or seen them, really, since skating with them during the 2020 post-season in the Edmonton bubble.
The Wild is scoring less, giving up more goals and its knack for rallying has gone dormant.
What these issues have in common is the most eye-catching problem of all: Since the team's three-game slump started, the Wild hasn't been tough to play against.
"It's not an X's and O's thing," center Ryan Hartman said. "It's not a lack of being able to score. I've talked to friends around the league and other guys around the league and sometimes after a game where we have a good game, they'll be like, 'That was exhausting.' Wild mired in identity crisis as losses pile up: ‘That’s not who we are’
“Obviously we have a bad taste in our mouth,” Hartman said. “The guys were pretty pissed coming in today.”
Maybe the biggest concern for the Wild during the recent slump is that they are haven’t looked like themselves. The Wild came out of their 10-day road trip through Canada (with one stop at home) with five losses in six games. It was the team’s worst stretch this season since they lost five in a row from Dec. 11 to Jan. 1.
I think its long overdue but I want to say thank you for your great GDT OPs I love the details you include and the effort you put in is not going unnoticed - as someone in Halifax I could easily try to be first and put up something but with how high you set the bar I figure I should leave it to the professionals
Should be a fun one tonight! I'd expect a push back similar to the St. Louis home game after we ran all over them at the Dome but with both teams having the same travel/rest this time this should be a highly competitive game.
Go Flames Go!
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It felt like Dean Evason was really on tilt last game. He was like a little old Leon Draisaitl with how pissy he was. I was expecting him to still pull the goalie when the score was 7-3.
I do think Kaprizov likely took a bit of excess punishment in that game that could have been called but I don't think it makes a big difference. The Flames owned the first period and I don't think Minnesota did much to get back in the game, although Markstrom made some good saves, and guys got sticks on open guys shooting when it was 3-1 that let the game get to 5-1. The Wild will likely be a bit more spirited with how they come out of this one in the first period. There are a lot of stats that seem to suggest the Wild have benefitted greatly from a really high team shooting percentage...so hopefully this continues to normalize and they fall back to being the more mediocre team the rest of their stats paint them to be.
__________________ "Some guys like old balls"
Patriots QB Tom Brady
I think they played well and deserve another chance rightly so
on the other hand, its a hard role to get right every game, and 2 of these guys IMO at least are marginal NHLers at this point- there will be nights (esp on the road) where I expect some painful hemmed in shifts
we need an engaged and hopefully improved Ruzicka and Dube (or replacements) going forward
8 games in 13 nights. Going to be a tough stretch, but once the Flames are through it, they'll be in a good position to finish the season strong and head into the playoffs with momentum. GFG!!
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