Quantcast
Channel: chicago blackhawks – Calgary Herald
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 39

Six storylines for Calgary Flames' longest road-trip of season

0
0

In this case, a carry-on isn’t going to cut it.

The Calgary Flames are embarking on their longest road-trip of the season, a six-games-in-nine-nights jaunt that starts with Sunday’s date against the Detroit Red Wings (5:30 p.m. MT, Sportsnet West, Sportsnet 960 The Fan) and also includes stops in Buffalo, Columbus, Boston, Philadelphia and Brooklyn.

By our estimation, they’ll be away from Calgary for about 230 consecutive hours.

By the time they return home, they’ll have covered more than 8,000 km.

We can’t even guess how many mouth-guards Matthew Tkachuk will have chewed through.

Here are a half-dozen storylines to track on the Flames’ six-game swing through the Eastern Conference …

GOODBYE, JOE

With the Red Wings moving into a spiffy new palace next season, Sunday marks the Flames’ final trip to Joe Louis Arena.

It likely won’t be a tearful goodbye for the cast from Calgary, who don’t have a lot of fond memories with an all-time record of 22 wins, 34 losses, seven ties and three loser points in Detroit’s old rink.

Unless somebody pulls a double (or triple) Darryl Sittler in Sunday’s contest, Jarome Iginla will finish as the Flames’ all-time leader at The Joe, with 11 goals and 29 points.

Can they bid farewell on a high note?

UP, UP WHILE AWAY

So far this fall, the Flames have looked better in white.

That’s not fashion commentary.

Glen Gulutzan’s group has managed just three victories at the Saddledome as they’ve sputtered to a 7-11-1 start, but the positive news is they’ve posted a very respectable 4-4-1 record in their road whites.

Part of the explanation is that Calgary’s sagging special-teams units have been better in enemy territory.

The Flames’ power play operates at a 16.7% success rate on the road, a smidge above the league average in that stat category and a vast improvement over their embarrassing 2.7% clip on home ice.

On the penalty kill, the Flames have survived 81.8% of shorthanded scenarios away from the Saddledome and scored all three of their shorties in other area codes.

LEAST OF THE EAST

The travel itinerary is intimidating, especially with two back-to-back sets on the same trip, but the lineup of opponents for this sojourn is not exactly a slate of Eastern Conference heavyweights.

Heading into Saturday’s action around the NHL, only one of Calgary’s upcoming hosts — the Blue Jackets — were sitting in a playoff position.

The Flames’ first two stops are against squads that are really struggling right now.

The Red Wings have dropped three in a row and have just two wins in eight tries during the month of November, while the Sabres lost six straight prior to Saturday’s 2-1 shootout victory over Sidney Crosby and the Penguins.

SCORING SHORTAGE

Even before Johnny Gaudreau fractured a finger on one of his soft mitts, this crew was struggling to light the lamp.

The Flames are averaging a measly 2.26 snipes per night, a number that has been trending the wrong direction. That doesn’t leave much room for defensive error.

They’ve scored two-or-less in seven straight, with their last three-goal outburst — it’s never good when three is considered a splurge — coming in a Nov. 3 victory in San Jose.

Calgary’s first-liners have been inconsistent, the blue line brigade hasn’t contributed a single goal in November and the third and fourth units are providing some energy but almost zero offensive oomph.

They need a bit more production from everybody.

BENNETT GOES BOOM?

The Flames all repeated the same message — that not one individual could replace the offence provided by injured star Johnny Gaudreau.

Sam Bennett, it seems, took that as a challenge.

Now skating in Gaudreau’s usual spot as the first-line left-winger, Bennett snapped out of his nine-game goal-scoring drought and also collected an assist in Friday’s loss to the Blackhawks. With a game-high six shots on net, his stat-line could have been even better.

The 20-year-old is a streaky sort — he racked up eight of his 18 goals last season during a five-game feast in January — so maybe Bennett is primed for a scoring spree. The Flames certainly hope so.

CREASE COMPETITION

The plan was that Brian Elliott would be Calgary’s go-to goalie this season, but Chad Johnson is making a convincing case for more of a puck-stopping platoon.

Johnson has made three straight starts, backstopping his snakebitten squad to wins over the Wild — a shutout, by the way — and Coyotes before’s 3-2 defeat to the Blackhawks.

The Flames didn’t practice prior to Saturday’s flight to the Motor City, so there were no hints at who will be between the pipes against the Red Wings.

Although head coach Glen Gulutzan hasn’t shied away from sticking with the same masked man on both halves of a back-to-back, both Johnson and Elliott will be called upon and must be sharp on this trip.

wgilbertson@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/WesGilbertson


Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 39

Latest Images

Trending Articles





Latest Images