Calgary Flames @ NY Rangers, 5 PM MT, Madison Square Garden, New York City

Calgary Flames 2-2-1 (5 pts) - NY Rangers 4-1-1 (9 pts)

TV: SNW - Radio: Sportsnet 960

Odds: Calgary- +100, NY- -120, O/U- 5.5

After a rough start to their 2021-22 campaign the Calgary Flames can win their third in a row with a victory over the NY Rangers tonight at Madison Square Garden. The Flames are three games into a five game road trip that has seen them easily handle the Detroit Red Wings and earn a tough two points against a very good Washington Capitals team. What awaits them in NYC will not be an easy task the the Rangers are one of the hotter teams in the NHL right now.

NY stumbled out of the gate by losing their first two games of the season and being outscored 8-3 over those two games. However, NYR have gotten it together and have reeled off four straight victories and have done it with goaltending, which is something that you might not expect from them this season. Without all world goalie Henrik Lundqvist the Rangers seem to be just fine...for now. Upstart keeper Igor Shesterkin has won three out of his last four start and gotten the Rangers at least a point in all four of those starts. In his time as a backup with the Rangers Shesterkin has been more than serviceable and appears to be handling the starting role just fine. His 1.48 GAA is 5th best overall in the league and his .958 Save% is the third best by an NHL goalie.

Despite what seems like an uphill battle to a non conference opponent, Calgary was able to hold off a very strong Washington team on Saturday and get two points with an OT victory. NY will be another game where the Flames will have to play smart and battle, something they have shown they can do on this trip so far. Like most Eastern Conference cities it’s been a while since the Flames made an appearance and it hasn’t gone so well either. The Flames are 1-6-0 in their last seven visits to MSG, but the Flames did defeat the Rangers in Calgary by a score of 4-3 on January 2nd of 2020. That game was the last time these two met before the Covid shutdown.

Oh, before we forget: the Flames drafted Adam Fox, the current NY Rangers star defenceman. Not sure if you knew that or not. We figured we’d pass it along before it’s mentioned 2,345,678 times during the broadcast. Sure, it stinks to not have Fox and watch him become an NHL star, but Calgary did get two pretty ok things in return as part of the trade that sent Fox to Carolina: Elias Lindholm and Noah Hanifin. So, to quote the song: Let It Go.

Puck drop is at 5 PM MT from Madison Square Garden.

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