Ryan Man

HUBEY

Leading Scorers: Flames: Points - Elias Lindholm (16) Goals - Nazem Kadri (8) Flyers: Points - Travis Konecny (19) Goals - Konecny (7) Special Teams: Flames: PP - 21.4% (15th) / PK - 80.0% (12th) Flyers: PP - 16.7% (28th) / PK - 73.7% (27th) Advanced Stats: Flames: Shot Attempts: 55.08% (4th) High-Danger Chances: 53.04% (11th) Flyers: Shot Attempts: 44.86% (27th) High-Danger Chances: 43.11% (28th) 1. US Rasmus Andersson was the 10th player sent to centre ice in the shootout Saturday in Sunrise, Fla. The game was on his stick - and boy, oh boy, he didn't disappoint. The crafty defenceman scored a gem, showing patience and skill to give the Flames a 5-4 shootout victory and an important two points. "It's kind of a move I've done for quite some time, and I took a few shootouts in Stockton (with the then AHL farm team Heat), and it worked back then," Andersson said. "It was a long time ago. It was nice to see it go in, but honestly, it was just nice to get a win. It was a much-needed one." The game was, of course, was the much ballyhooed return of Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar to their old haunt, while the Flames were facing former teammate Matthew Tkachuk for the first time since this summer's big trade. Huberdeau scored in the second round of the shootout before Andersson clinched it. Sitting on the bench watching, Weegar had no doubt his fellow blueliner would put the puck past Panthers netminder Spencer Knight. "He scores in the shootout all practice. He's a lock," he said of Andersson. "Right away, when he got picked, I had a good feeling about it." Adam Ruzicka continues to be the hottest Flame (skating on a line with Elias Lindholm and Tyler Toffoli), scoring twice and adding an assist, while Nikita Zadorov and Blake Coleman also tallied for the Flames. Jacob Markstrom made 31 saves in the contest. "Need him to score, need him to contribute both ends of the ice," head coach Darryl Sutter of Ruzicka, who has four goals and seven points in his last four games. "Did a good job. The line's been really good for us." The Flames will host Tkachuk and the Panthers at the Scotiabank Saddledome in their first game back home after this road trip. Click for tickets 2. THEM The Flyers are coming off a tough 5-4 shootout loss to the Canadiens in Montreal Saturday night and have now dropped six straight (0-4-2) after a great start to the season. Former Calgary Hitmen star Travis Sanheim opened the scoring 39 ticks into the first period and Owen Tippett made it 2-0 before the Habs scored a pair to tie it after 20 minutes. Mike Matheson made it 3-2 Montreal in the second but Tippett got his second to knot it back up going into the third. Kevin Hayes made it 3-2 Flyers but Cole Caufield would get his second of the night with just 1.9 seconds to play and the Montreal net empty. "I thought we played hard," Flyers coach John Tortorella told NHL.com's Sean Farrell. "I thought we had a ton of good hockey. We just don't know how to manage a game. We have so much to learn in momentums. I mean, total panic when we had the puck trying to end the game. (It's) certainly not through lack of trying." Hayes echoed his coach's assessment of the night . "I thought we did some good things," he said. "I thought our team worked very hard tonight, but it's tough when you lose a couple of games in a row and then they score with one second left. It's easy to say things aren't going our way, but we've just got to keep working hard, and things turn." The Flyers were without leading scorer Travis Konecny who suffered an upper-body injury in a loss to the Bruins in the team's prior outing. 3. FAST FACTS LONG BATTLES: The Flames and Flyers have gone to overtime or a shootout five times in their last eight meetings. Four of those games ended in overtime, with the Flames winning all four and Philadelphia winning the lone shootout the clubs have played over that span. IMPRESSIVE MILESTONE: Tonight's tilt will be NHL game No. 400 for Flames winger Blake Coleman. The two-time Stanley Cup Champion started his NHL career in New Jersey and was a third-round pick of the Devils back in 2011. He was traded to Tampa Bay at the trade deadline in 2020 and would go on to win back-to-back Stanley Cup titles with the Lightning. He signed with the Flames as a free agent prior to the start of last season and skated in 81 of 82 games for the Flames in 2021-22 and all 17 games for the Flames so far this year. BIG Z ROLLING: Nikita Zadorov continued his strong play on Saturday against Florida and picked-up his fourth goal on the season. He is currently tied for seventh in the NHL in goals among defenceman and is three away from tying his career high in goals at seven, a mark he hit twice in 2017-18 and 2018-19 as a member of the Colorado Avalanche. He also leads the Flames in plus/minus at +9. 4. PLAYERS TO WATCH Flames - Adam Ruzicka Pretty hard not to go with Ruzicka in this one. He's been on a tear but isn't tooting his own horn. In fact, quite the opposite. When asked after the tilt against the Panthers about making the most of his current opportunity playing alongside Lindholm and Toffoli, he agreed he's done a good job so far - but the key now is to keep it going: "Right now, yeah. But you've got to be consistent and play the right way. ... It's so short amount of time, right? Three or four games is not enough, so I've got to keep doing it until the end of the season." Flyers - Kevin Hayes Hayes is riding a five-game scoring streak, collecting three goals and three assists in that span. He's second in team scoring behind Konecny with five goals and 18 points this campaign. 5. DID YOU KNOW? Saturday's shootout hero Rasmus Andersson scored his first NHL goal against Philadelphia in a 6-5 overtime win back in December of 2018. Posting Open ☕

Projected Lineups Notes Rooney draws back in for Ritchie who is listed as day-to-day Kevin Hayes is listed as a game time decision

@ 5 P.M. MT | TV: Sportsnet Flames | RADIO: Sportsnet 960 The FAN

Love Hubey wiping the snow off of Marky.

See how they play with the lead, hasn't been great to start the season..

If you add an assist to Markstrom on the first Panthers goal, a former Panther has a point..🤷‍♂️

My stream is slightly delayed, if you couldn't tell.

Kadri seems to have a 'me against the world' mentality - bud you have 4 more team mates on the ice with you.

You just love love to see Ruzie playing with this confidence. Was given a chance and has grabbed it with both hands.

Leading Scorers: Flames: Points - Nazem Kadri (15) Goals - Kadri (8) Panthers: Points - Matthew Tkachuk (22) Goals - Carter Verhaeghe (11) Special Teams: Flames: PP - 20.8% (17th) / PK - 80.7% (10th) Panthers: PP - 18.2% (26th) / PK - 78.5% (16th) Advanced Stats: Flames: Shot Attempts: 55.38% (4th) High-Danger Chances: 53.38% (11th) Panthers: Shot Attempts: 57.59% (3rd) High-Danger Chances: 54.63% (5th) 1. US The Flames started this six-game road swing with a 4-1 loss to the Lightning in Tampa on Thursday. Milan Lucic beat Andrei Vasilevskiy with a low shortside snipe in the first period but the goal was overturned on an offside challenge by the homeside. A scant 35 ticks later, Steven Stamkos would beat Jacob Markstrom and then Nikita Kucherov converted a cross-ice pass from the Tampa captain on a powerplay in the second to give the Lightning a 2-0 lead after 40 minutes. Elias Lindholm was credited with a goal in the third to halve the lead but again Tampa Bay answered right back 10 seconds later and then Kucherov added a late emptry-netter to round the scoring. Lindholm's goal was later changed to Nazem Kadri, who tipped it on the way in. The Flames outshot the Lightning 40-24, but the Lightning had a 14-4 edge in high-danger scoring chances according to Naturalstattrick.com. "We were a little sluggish in the first period, 'Marky' made two or three really good saves," Flames coach Darryl Sutter said after. "I think we probably had enough opportunities to at least tie going into the third." The big storyline in today's game with the Panthers, of course, is the fact the two teams are meeting for the first time since the big summer blockbuster trade that sent Matthew Tkachuk and pick to Calgary for Jonathan Huberdeau, MacKenzie Weegar, a prospect and a pick. 2. THEM Tenacity. Gumption. Call it what you want, but the Panthers showed it in full measure Thursday night at home against the visiting Stars. Dallas jumped out to a 4-0 lead after the first period but the homeside battled back. Carter Verhaeghe notched one in the second before the Stars answered back courtesy of Roope Hintz, his second of the night. Florida, though, kept battling with Eetu Luostarinen and Sam Reinhart finding net to make it a two-goal game heading into the third period. Tkachuk scored 13:57 in but Dallas would seal it on an empty-netter late with 18 ticks left courtesy of Ty Dellandrea. Sergei Bobrovsky started but was pulled after allowing four goals on 11 shots. Spencer Knight came on in relief and made 16 stops. "When you're down 2-0, you're going to come back out and play hard," Florida coach Paul Maurice told NHL.com's Taylor Baird. "But when you're down four, to find that grit to come back, those are the things that over the year you get to keep a little bit. One, we haven't had those starts, so that's not our team. But how we handled it, very impressive. They fought back. It was a tough night for us, but they didn't quit at all." The Panthers were without captain and all-star centre Aleksander Barkov in the game due to a non-Covid illness. Florida went with 17 players in the contest (11 forwards, six defencemen). Tkachuk was asked Friday about Barkov's absence and it's impact on the team. "I mean, yeah, he's our best player. He's our leader. He leads us in practice," he said. "We haven't had him around the rink for a couple of days. So but he's turning the corner, I think, and he's feeling better so hopefully we can get him back soon because he's such a huge part of our team and the NHL as a whole is better off when he's in the lineup so hopefully we get him back soon." 3. FAST FACTS HUBERDEAU'S LEGACY: Jonathan Huberdeau tops the Florida Panthers all-time games played chart at 671. In those 671 games as a Panther he has a franchise-leading 613 points and leads the Panthers in assists (415) and has the second most goals in franchise history (198). The 29-year-old also set a franchise record last season when he scored 115 points (30G, 85A), the most in a single season ever by a Panther. SUCCESS IN SUNRISE: Over the Flames' last five trips to the FLA Live Arena they have a record of 3-1-1 and have gone 9-3-2-2 all time in Sunrise. They have outscored the Panthers 45-40 in their 16 contests at FLA Live. The Flames have a winning-percentage of .688 at FLA Live Arena, which is their best winning percentage in any arena they travel to. They have an all-time record of 11-5-2-2 against the Panthers on the road, going 2-2 in four additional games played in the old Miami Arena. DID YOU KNOW: Tyler Toffoli is one goal away from 200 in his NHL career. He can become the sixth skater from the 2010 NHL Draft class to reach the mark and the first among players drafted after the first round. 4. PLAYERS TO WATCH Flames - Huberdeau and Weegar Just like the fella down below here for the Panthers, the two Flames will be plenty motivated to have a strong showing against their old club, one that drafted both of them and they spent their formative years with. "You look forward to it," Huberdeau Friday after the team's practice. "Obviously in the summer, after the trade, (I) circled that day, and obviously, I want to do well ... I want us to win." All eyes will be on the former Flame in this one. He currently leads the Panthers in scoring with 22 points, and notched a goal and two points in the loss to Dallas. As Calgary fans know, he's physical, feisty and has a great set of hands. He likes to make an impact in big games and Saturday's tilt certainly fits that bill. 5. QUOTABLE Darryl Sutter on Weegar and Huberdeau facing their old team: "I think they'll be excited about it, all the way around."
 Posting Open ☕

Starting Lineups

@ 2 P.M. MT | TV: Sportsnet West | RADIO: Sportsnet 960 The FAN

Excellent from Ritchie

Yep, needs to realise how big he is and use that size.

Happy Days! Solid performance from all, I thought the top line was great and good to see Rozie get a goal/assist.

Huge from and for Lewis.

OH MY.. MARKY.

Good afternoon Flames fans. 🔥 Thanks for the GDT Deeds.

More maddening was that the Isles commentators called both of those dives.

Thanks for the GDT RD. Solid start to this game, lots of jump to their game and rewarded with the first.

Great forecheck and great screen.

Yep, a little far from me in Canberra… but a very close friend will be moving to Brisbane in December. Who knows we may run in to one another when representing the Flames on my family trip up north. hopefully they enjoy their time here.

Where abouts May I ask? A few of us in my town but if they’re close by would love to meet them. Can never have too many.

Thanks for the GDT RocDoc. Just streamed the game on my laptop for a few non hockey fans over here. Safe to say they quiet enjoyed some hockey over lunch. Was a sluggish start but looked the better team for most of the game. Bring on Buffalo in two days time.