Following yet another embarrassing loss to the bottom-feeding Blackhawks on Tuesday, the Flames now stand as an obstacle for the St. Louis Blues, who have their eyes on Vegas' Western Wildcard playoff position.
Can the Flames, not only buck a four-game losing streak, but also kick a tendency to lose to the Blues in miserable fashion tonight? Let's get to it.
Calgary Flames (33-33-5, 71 pts) vs
St. Louis Blues (38-30-4, 80 pts)
Last Ten: Calgary (3-7-0) St. Louis (6-3-1)
Time: 6:00 p.m. Mountain Standard Time.
TV: Sportsnet One, Sportsnet West, Bally Sports Midwest, ESPN+
We Just Did
A bit of a follow-up to “Can We Just
Not?” on Tuesday. The Flames
did. They’re now 1-4-1 against the Chicago Blackhawks since the start of 2022-2023.
It’s a compelling example of sports psychology. The Blackhawks had a few strong individual performances in their first meetup last season from Lukas Reichel (three points), Max Domi (two points) and Alex Stalock (44 saves and a .936sv%). The confidence built during that Jan 8, 2023, game appears to have snowballed into a 5-1-0 record against the Flames over the last two seasons. Wild.
I think the positive angle here is that, as the team remodels a bit and likely faces a sub-.500 record next season, games like that 4-1 loss won’t be taken as seriously.
Speaking of Tough Matchups
The Blues have a 1-3-1 record against the Flames heading into tonight.
On a bright and surreal note, the Flames can play the role of spoilers. After a 2-1 overtime loss on Monday night to the
very team they’re trying to steal a spot from, the Blues simply can’t afford to lose this game.
Four of the last five times these two teams have played each other has felt like pulling teeth. It would be nice to see the Flames click tonight.
Speaking of Waiting for the Click
The Flames have an odd tendency to end losing streaks on terribly sour notes. You can check out a deep dive on that at CHN, but in short, seven out of eight losing streaks since early December have ended with a loss against a non-playoff team. Ottawa, Columbus, Chicago, Minnesota (2), Detroit, and Colorado.
Tonight, they have a chance to keep that trend going following another loss to Chicago.
Hot Opposition
The Blues offence has been hot during their late-season playoff push. In their last four games, Jordan Kyrou has four goals and seven points, Brendan Saad has three goals and four points, and Calgary boy Jake Neighbours also has three goals and four points.
Their defence, meanwhile, has been fairly pedestrian. 3.00 goals against per game over that same span, and tonight’s starting goaltender for the Blues, Jordan Binnington, is 1-1-1 with a .903 save percentage.
Calgary Flames Projected Lineup
Huberdeau-Backlund-Coleman
Kuzmenko-Kadri-Pospisil
Zary-Sharangovich-Hunt
Greer-Rooney-Coronato
Hanley-Andersson
Weegar-Miromanov
Okhotiuk-Pachal
Wolf
Markstrom
St. Louis Blues Projected Lineup
Buchnevich-Thomas-Neighbours
Saad-Schenn-Kyrou
Bolduc-Hayes-Toropchenko
Walker-Dean-Kapanen
Leddy-Parayko
Scandella-Kessel
Perunovich-Faulk
Binnington
Hofer
Puck drops around 6:10 p.m. MST.
Calgary Flames Blogger • 
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