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Fixing Bad Habits: Battle of Alberta Game Day |
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Round two of the 2024-2025 edition of the Battle of Alberta is on tap tonight and surely both teams would like to distance themselves from their place in the standings.
The 20th-place Edmonton Oilers are coming off of a 5-1 win over a shell-shocked Nashville Predators squad. The win brought the team back to a .500 points percentage (5-5-1) and proved to the struggling squad that winning without the help of Connor McDavid. The Oilers superstar is expected to miss 2-3 weeks with an ankle injury.
Meanwhile, the 6-4-1 Calgary Flames have been working through a bit of an effort issue. The team finally ended a four-game losing streak with a 3-0 shutout victory over the New Jersey Devils on Friday.
Despite choking out a Devils team at the tail end of a road trip that featured a night off on Halloween, the Flames certainly have wrinkles to iron out.
Sloppy Process, Ideal Result
It’s an objective fact that Calgary succeeded in playing a tight-checking game on Friday.
With Mikael Backlund being honored and awarded his Silver Stick for his 1000th NHL game played earlier in the week, a 5-1 loss to the Utah Hockey Club, the team appeared to lean into his style of safe hockey.
“I think as a team, the guys did a good job of staying above them,” said Head Coach Ryan Huska following the win. “So, it makes it a little bit more difficult for them to skate through and I thought that was something that we did a good job of from the start of the game right through to the finish.
Expect more of that tonight; not exactly the most exciting style of hockey, but effective at controlling attacks.
With that said, a few individual players could have played better.
The strongest example is Andrei Kuzmenko, who will start tonight on the Flames fourth line. This will be the first instance of such a demotion for the pending UFA this season, but he was also benched for much of the second period against the Golden Knights on Monday. Huska cited a lack of effort, or “moving his feet” following Friday’s win.
He’s not the only one, but certainly the headliner at the doghouse. Martin Pospisil and Yegor Sharangovich are the two strongest puck-carriers on the team and simply weren’t taking the zone as fast as they have the ability to.
It might not seem like much, but taking the blue lines with speed is quintessential to getting clean entries where a proper offensive attack can be set up. Most of the Flames’ early success can be attributed to extended O-zone plays paying off. That strength became a weakness during their four-game skid.
Deeper Issues
The Edmonton Oilers have also experienced effort issues. A few bottom six and bottom pairing players got a boost to their plus-minus stats against the Predators, but prior to that, the bottom half of the roster has been missing in action this season.
Ten of 21 players to dress for at least one game this season are in the negatives in terms of even strength goal differentials. Seven of those have a –3 or lower plus-minus rating.
You can see it some games in their compete level in the corners and along the boards. Very little urgency to get to the puck first. Given that tonight is against their archrivals, you would expect that issue to fade temporarily.
Icepacks and Advils
Both teams are coming off of a game where a player won a fight decisively.
For the Flames, that was Ryan Lomberg’s southpaw beatdown of New Jersey forward Nathan Bastian.
Bastian, who has seven inches and 20 pounds on Lomberg, received an instigator penalty and a broken jaw for his efforts. The fight served as a turning point and got the crowd engaged after an emotional Mikael Backlund ceremony.
Vasili Podkolzin was no slouch in a tussle with Nashville’s Jeremy Lauzon. Another mismatch, the six-foot-three, 225-pound Lauzon received an early KO punch from the six-foot-one, 190-pound Podkolzin.
Will either bring that element to tonight’s Battle of Alberta? Time will tell, but you have to appreciate an underdog victory when they come along.
Calgary Flames Projected Lineup
Courtesy of Pat Steinberg. @Fan960Steinberg
Zary-Kadri-Pospisil
Coleman-Backlund-Coronato
Huberdeau-Sharangovich-Mantha
Lomberg-Rooney-Kuzmenko
Bahl-Andersson
Weegar-Miromanov
Barrie-Pachal
Vladar
Wolf
Edmonton Oilers Projected Lineup
Courtesy of Bob Stauffer. @Bob_Stauffer
Podkolzin-Draisaitl-Arvidsson
J.Skinner-RNH-Hyman
Janmark-Henrique-Brown
Caggiula-Philp-Perry
Ekholm-Bouchard
Nurse-Dermott
Kulak-Emberson
S. Skinner
Pickard
Puck drop will be around 6:10 p.m. MST. Catch it on Sportsnet West and Sportsnet One.
Stats courtesy of Natural Stat Trick and the National Hockey League.
Calgary Flames Blogger • 
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