The Calgary Flames (24-12-3, 52 points) hit the halfway point of their 2018-19 season on Wednesday night as they begin a four game road trip. Their first stop is Michigan, where they visit the Detroit Red Wings (15-19-7, 37 points). After a big clash on New Year’s Eve with San Jose, the Flames are looking to keep their momentum rolling and avoid an emotional let-down.
The puck drops just after 5 p.m. MT on Sportsnet West and Sportsnet 960 The Fan.
The Flames
Projected lines, via Daily Faceoff:
Gaudreau – Monahan – Lindholm
Tkachuk – Backlund – Frolik
Bennett – Jankowski – Neal
Dube – Ryan – Hathaway
Giordano – Brodie
Hanifin – Hamonic
Kylington – Andersson
With the injury to David Rittich, Mike Smith starts tonight and is backed up by Jon Gillies. The healthy scratches are Dalton Prout and Austin Czarnik. As you’d expect after such a big win, no changes are expected from the lineup from Monday night.
The Flames need to play better defensively. If you run back the tape from the San Jose win, most of their goals against were a result of defensive lapses giving the Sharks really good scoring opportunities. Now they’re headed on the road for four games and it seems like a good chance for them to simplify their game a bit and tidy up their defensive play.
The Red Wings
Projected lines, via Daily Faceoff:
Nyquist – Larkin – Abdelkader
Bertuzzi – Nielsen – Vanek
Rasmussen – Glendening – Athanasiou
Frk – de la Rose – Ehn
Kronwall – Hronek
Ericsson – Jensen
Cholowski – Witkowski
Jimmy Howard starts for the Wings, backed up by Jonathan Bernier. The projected healthy scratches are Brian Lashoff and Wade Megan.
Detroit is coming off shootout loss to the Florida Panthers on New Year’s Eve. They played pretty well and probably deserved a better fate, but they’re not getting many breaks these days. They’re hammered by injuries and have been hampered by the inconsistency of their young players at key times in games.
They’re near the NHL’s basement and aren’t quite in Jack Hughes territory, but they’re getting there.
The Numbers
| CGY | DET | |
| Wins | 24 | 15 |
| Points | 52 | 37 |
| Corsi Close | 53.3% | 46.7% |
| Power Play | 21.1% | 17.9% |
| Penalty Kill | 79.2% | 77.8% |
Injury Report
The Flames are without David Rittich, Juuso Valimaki, Andrew Mangiapane and Michael Stone.
The Red Wings are without Henrik Zetterberg, Johan Franzen, Mike Green, Anthony Mantha, Darren Helm, Dan Dekeyser and Trevor Daley.
Season Series
This is the first of two meetings between Calgary and Detroit both this season and this month. They’ll meet once more in two weeks at the Saddledome.
Know Thy Enemy
Your Red Wings Twitter follows for tonight:
FGD brought to you by ATB Financial
From peewee to the pros, Albertans love the atmosphere, energy, and life lessons that take place at rinks across the province. And where there’s an arena, you’ll find an ATB branch nearby—with our team members cheering and fundraising along with you. See more information at ATB.com.
Say what you may about Smith but I think he had a solid enough outing.
Agreed. No soft goals and a save % over .900 is a basically all we can ask for from him anymore and that is what he gave us tonight.
12-8-1 now?
Sure a hell of a lot better than what the sentiment around here would have you believe.
Good game Smitty
Frols!
Frolik is the empty net assassin!
Lol. Good one..
Hey, an empty net goal signals a win for the Flames!
I’ll take that over what just happened to Canada.
4.3 mill empty net guy
Means the coach believes in him in a tight game.
Ryan takes a lot of heat as he doesn’t show well in the offensive end, but what he has brought to key defensive face-offs, the PK and the last minute of games has been outstanding. I used to cringe in one goal games with face-offs in the Flames end when Backlund would lose 90% of key draws, but Ryan has been great in this role.
Ryan was a top 5 centerman in the league in % last year I believe. That was always a big part of him coming over
Happy Smitty got the W. #1 in the West!
Guys, this team is for real. Neal WILL get it going and we will be strong down the stretch. They have something intangible…. its rare… we should add at the deadline, go all in…. i feel it, could be something to remember…..
Back in first ahead of Vega and on track for 108 point season!
🙂
Smitty is a decent back up now , I like the goalie situation
It would be more comfortable if BSD was just getting a rest. I was wondering if the Flames could keep Detroit from getting another shot when it looked like Gillies might come in.
Uh, when did Vegas get to 52 points? They’ve sure turned their season around.
I was just looking at that. Crazy.
I call that a solid performance by a backup goalie, and that’s a-ok.
For anyone that thought coaching would not make a difference will have a hard time explaining Giordano’s performance
Games Points PPG
Hartley 64 47 0.734375
Hartley 61 48 0.786885246
Hartley 82 56 0.682926829
Gulutzan 81 39 0.481481481
Gulutzan 82 38 0.463414634
Peters 38 37 0.973684211
Hamilton effect? Im honestly asking…. was Hamilton that much of a drag on Gio’s offence?
The answer is yes he was always having to cover for your partner does not put you a position to score
Listening to the fan960 today you’d think Pinder wants Smitty and this team to fail just so his arrogant a$$ would be proven right.
Another win for a great team(Smith Included). Get bent Pinder
You can’t possibly take Pinder seriously. Does 960 still play that “Pinder sucks” quip that they used to play when he was racking mornings? Your own station says you suck should tell you all you need to know about that guy.