Flames @ Lightning Gamethread

With the Red Wings falling to the Kings this afternoon, another Flames victory would put them 4 points up on 9th place Detroit and in a tie with the Colorado Avalanche for second in the division. The Canucks won again, but, really, the NW division crown is probably not in the cards anymore. Not unless something happens to Luongo in the last quarter of the season that is.

Other stuff to watch for:

– The Lightning are a very middling team at ES. No regular skater has a positive corsi rate and they regularly feed their bottom-enders to the wolves so their big guns have a better chance to score. As Bob notes, they’re only really deadly on the PP.

– Speaking of which, Cory Sarich is positioned to be the scapegoat for this contest. The proud owner of the Flames worst penalties taken and drawn ratio has been a disaster recently. With him potentially facing the likes of St.Louis, Lecavalier or Downie at ES, another couple of trips to the box are rather probable.

– Although the need for more firepower up front has taken a backseat recently, Alex Tanguay may still remain on the Flames radar as a deadline rental. He had a rotten start to the season, but has turned things around a bit recently (although word is he’s not very popular with Rick Tocchet).

Comments a go-go.

by Kent Wilson