The Day of the Lord is coming. It will be a day when the young hopefuls that this team is building around are taken away. It will be a day when all of the nations gather around Edmonton: the city will be mocked, the team stripped bare, and the fans raped of their dignity. Half of them will leave the team entirely, and the rest will be left to mourn the ruins. Only then will the Lord go out and fight for Edmonton against the nations as he has done in times gone by.
Calgary Flames (34-25-12) @ Edmonton Oilers (27-36-7)
Rexall Place, 7:30 p.m. MDT
Television: Sportsnet West
More analysis after the jump...
Visiting Team Scouting Report:
The Flames are still in the thick of the playoff race, currently sitting in eighth place by points percentage, narrowly ahead of the Kings, Coyotes, and Avalanche, and narrowly behind the Sharks, Stars and Blackhawks. All seven of those teams have a points percentage between 55.3% and 59.3% with no more than a dozen games left in the season. Four out of the seven will make the playoffs, while three of the seven will be left out. Since two of the teams are very likely to play one another in the first round of the playoffs, at least one of these teams is going to be a Conference Semi-Finalist. The stretch drive sure is fun. Maybe next year the Oilers will get to participate.
Expected Lineups:
Edmonton Oilers (27-36-7):
Jones - Nugent-Hopkins - Eberle
Hall - Gagner - Hemsky
Smyth - Horcoff - Omark
Hordichuk - Belanger - Petrell
Smid - Petry
Whitney - Schultz
Peckham - Potter
Dubnyk
Calgary Flames (34-25-12):
Tanguay - Stajan - Iginla
Glencross - Jokinen - Moss
Kostopoulos - Nemisz - Baertschi
Desbiens - Horak - Comeau
Bouwmeester - Smith
Giordano - Hannan
Sarich - Babchuk
Irving
By the Numbers:
- Taylor Hall has scored a goal in each of his last four games. That puts him a quarter of the way to the Punch Broadbent's record of 16 set during the 1921-22 season. With twelve games left in the season, Hall has just enough time to tie the record.
- Since scoring eight points in one game, Sam Gagner has averaged 0.63 points per game in the nineteen games since. Before the eight-point game Gagner averaged 0.51 points per game in 43 games. I've got to think that a huge part of that change is the difference in opportunity.
- Ales Hemsky hasn't scored a point in six games, which is the second-longest drought of the season. It's also his second-longest drought since the 2002-03 season when he went six games without a point from December 8th to January 2nd.
- In the nine games since Tom Gilbert was traded, Jeff Petry has averaged 22:58 per game. He has spent most of that time playing with Ladislav Smid against the best lines that the opposition has to offer. He has posted a +/- rating of +3 and has not had a negative rating in any game.
- Among players with at least 100 shots on goal, Jordan Eberle is third in the league with a shooting percentage of 18.9%. The two players ahead of him are Jordan Staal (19.0%) and Steven Stamkos (20.2%), though Curtis Glencross and Jiri Hudler would both be ahead of him with their current goal totals if they had 100 shots.