Flames taking solace in playing well enough to deserve a better fate in many of their recent losses, but those moral victories will not take them into the playoff picture
Good but not good enough has been the situation for the Calgary Flames (11-14-5) lately.
As they head into Saturday’s home clash with the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Flames have just one win in seven outings (1-4-2), but have been in the fight in almost every one of those clashes.
It can become a dicey situation should frustration set into the dressing room.
“They know they’re playing well. It’s the self-inflicted things that we have to get rid of in our game,” coach Ryan Huska said. “There’s a difference when they can honestly look in the mirror and say afterwards, ‘We had a good game tonight. If we can get rid of this stuff, we’re gonna be in good shape.'
“When you feel like you’re doing things the right way, the mood is still high. They know they’re right there.”
The players are of the same mindset after their disappointing three-game road trip, a trek in which the Flames held a third-period lead in all three losses, one in regulation, one in overtime and one via shootout.
“Only getting (two points) on the road trip is a bit of a sour taste, especially with the way we lost those games,” forward Blake Coleman said. “We felt we could have come home with more points.
“We felt we gave away those games,” he added. “It was our mistakes that ended up costing us ultimately. We’ve got to find ways to eliminate those and keep that same effort, that same compete, and we’ll be in a good spot.”
The Flames remain without number-one goalie Jacob Markstrom (broken finger) who has resumed practising, and shutdown defenceman Chris Tanev (upper body). They both were part of the morning skate but are not yet ready to return.
The Lightning (14-12-5) are coming off a wild 7-4 comeback victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday. Steven Stamkos scored four times and the Lightning scored five goals in the third period.
Nikita Kucherov leads the league in points with 50 (20-30-50) and netted one goal and two assists in Edmonton, while goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 53 shots.
Vasilevskiy is slated to start in net and the Lightning will receive a boost with top defenceman Victor Hedman expected to return after missing the past two games due to injury. Vasilevskiy has a career 5-4-0 record against the Flames, with a 3.13 GAA and .899 SvPct.
Here’s a look at Calgary’s likely lineup:
Forwards:
Andrew Mangiapane-Elias Lindholm-Yegor Sharangovich
Jonathan Huberdeau-Mikael Backlund-Blake Coleman
Connor Zary-Nazem Kadri-Martin Pospisil
A.J. Greer-Adam Ruzicka-Dillon Dube
Extra: Walker Duehr
Defence:
Noah Hanifin-Rasmus Andersson
Jordan Oesterle-MacKenzie Weegar
Dennis Gilbert-Nick DeSimone
Extra: Ilya Solovyov
Goal:
Dan Vladar
Dustin Wolf
Vladar has a career 1-1-0 record against Tampa Bay with a 3.50 goals-against average and .877 save percentage. Wolf has never faced the Lightning.
ICE CHIPS: Flames F Yegor Sharangovich has scored five goals in a four-game streak and has seven points in a five-game run. RW Blake Coleman also has a five-game streak on the go (3-4-7) … Lightning C Brayden Point has collected three goals and eight points in 11 career games against his hometown team. He is closing in on 500 career points, sitting at 496 ... In 17 career games against the Flames, F Steven Stamkos has scored four goals.
