Washington Capitals at Calgary Flames [Game 11]

The Calgary Flames face yet another Eastern Conference team as they take on the defending champions in the Washington Capitals. The whole team will have to get back on track as the Flames were obliterated in their last contest by the Pittsburgh Penguins by a score of nine to one. The loss marked the Flames worst loss at home since the turn of the century.

The Flame that will have to turn it around more than anybody else on the team is Mike Smith. Smith allowed two low danger goals in six low danger chances against Pittsburgh when goalies typically stop 97 percent of those and was pulled after giving up six goals in 20 shots. He’s currently dead last in the NHL in GSAA out of all goalies and is trending downward rather severely. If he continues to falter, the team will have little choice but to make the switch to David Rittich as the starter.

A number of changes are being made to the lineup tonight. Sam Bennett will move up to line one and play along side Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan while Elias Lindholm moves to the third line to centre Dillon Dube and James Neal. Austin Czarnik is back on the second line replacing Michael Frolik who will be a healthy scratch. Mark Jankowski will centre Garnet Hathaway and Derek Ryan on line four.

On defense, Juuso Valimaki is back in as Michael Stone heads to the bench. Valimaki will be tandemed with Rasmus Andersson. T.J. Brodie is back with Mark Giordano and Noah Hanafin is paired with Travis Hamonic again.

Puck drop is at 2:00 P.M. M.S.T.

by Les Mavus