Calgary Flames at Nashville Predators [Game 7]

The Calgary Flames two game homestand ends tonight as they take on the Nashville Predators. It’s still early, but the Flames find themselves in second place in the Pacific and can fall just a point back of the surprising Anaheim Ducks with a victory tonight. The Flames took it to a tough Boston Bruins team in their last contest by a score of five to two.

The Predators are not slouches in their own right as they come in leading the Central division with just one loss on the year. That one loss? It came at the hands of the Flames. Calgary was probably a little outplayed in that game, but they were able able to shut them out by a score of three to nothing thanks to the best goaltending performance of the year from Mike Smith.

Dillon Dube is returning to the lineup. He’ll replace Austin Czarnik for some reason as both Mark Jankowski and Garnet Hathaway get the call. Czarnik is averaging half a point a game and has put up considerably better possession numbers than any one of Hathaway, Dube, or Jankowski, so this one is a bit curious. Dalton Prout and Anthony Peluso are the other scratches.

Mike Smith gets the start in net tonight. He’ll square off against the reigning Vezina winner in Pekka Rinne once again. Smith considerably outplayed Rinne in their last meeting and was the primary reason that the Flames came away with the victory. While nobody expects him to do it again, it sure would be appreciated.

Puck drop is at 7:00 P.M. M.S.T.

by Les Mavus