Flames_Website_Team

Tonight's game is the first and only meeting between the Flames and NY Rangers. The Flames are coming off of a disappointing OT loss to the Detroit Red Wings Sunday night in Detroit. The Flames were up 4-3 with under a minute to play when Wings sniper, Henrik Zetterberg, tied it on a power play with 3.2 seconds left in regulation and goalie Jimmy Howard was off for an extra attacker. Nicklas Lidstrom scored at 1:38 of overtime to give the Red Wings a 5-4 victory in the extra period. Jarome Iginla has found his November fire power as he picked up two more goals and an assist last night, giving him five goals in six points in the last two games and just one point behind Alex Tanguay for the team points leader. Look out for Brandon Dubinsky who leads the Rangers with 12 goals in 21 games. The Flames will be without Olli Jokinen as he will serve the final game of his 3-game suspension. The Rangers are without Chris Drury (finger injury), Vinny Prospal (knee), and Michal Rozsival (shoulder). Puck drops at Madison Square Garden at 5:00 pm MT and is broadcast on Sportsnet West and on the Fan 960. Probable Flames lines vs Rangers

Today's matinee in Detroit is the third meeting this season between the two clubs. Detroit has taken both games, one in Detroit and one in Calgary. The Flames are starting their road trip on a high note after a big confidence boost Friday night, beating the Chicago Blackhawks 7-2. Iginla scored a hat-trick in the win while Alex Tanguay picked up 3 assists and now has 1 goal and 6 points in his last four games. From Detroit the team will shift to NY to play the Rangers at 5:00pm MT Monday night. Calgary will be without Olli Jokinen as he will be serving the final two games of his three-game suspension. For the Red Wings, Jimmy Howard is expected to start in net again because the Wings are still without goaltender Chris Osgood, who's been out nearly three weeks with a groin injury. Center Kris Draper is sidelined after abdominal surgery. Look for the Flames to keep their winning ways alive starting this afternoon in Detroit. Puck drops at 3:00 pm MT and is broadcast on Sportsnet Calgary and on the Fan960. Probable Flames lines against Detroit

The Flames will face the defending champion Chicago Blackhawks group for the first of four meetings this season. With the new additions of right winger Tom Kostopoulos and defenceman Anton Babchuk in the line up tonight, the Flames will look for a new spark to get their team back into the win column. "I think with change it brings a little bit of energy," said Rene Bourque. "Its a different look to our locker room and a different feeling. They got thrown into the fire here pretty quick we have a lot of games and obviously we've been struggling so hopefully they can come in here and make a difference." The Flames will be withouth Olli Jokinen as he will serve the first of his three game suspension tonight. Losing a key player like Jokinen will be tough on the line up. They will look to others to step up and fill the void. "I've been playing with Olli for most of the year," Bourque said. "I don't know what kind of lines we'll have tonight. It definitely doesn't help. He's been a big part of our team this year and he's our number one centre. To have him out, someone is going to have to fill his role and whoever it is, hopefully they can pick up the slack." Coach Brent Sutter commented to media after the pre-game practice that although it is a big loss for the team to lose Jokinen, they will make do with what they have and shuffle things up. They will look to David Moss and Mikael Backlund to step up in key situations. "We're going to put Moss at centre ice and it's a good thing we've tried him there before," said Sutter. "You work with it and you shuffle it up a little bit. A young kid like Backlund, at the end of the day has been a good centre ice man so he'll get thrown into more key situations which is really good for any young player like him." Sutter said that Tom Kostopoulos will be playing on the right side of David Moss and Anton Babchuk will get a chance to play with Mark Giordano tonight. All other lines will be a game time decision...so stay tuned!!

The Flames are about to begin a tough stretch of games playing seven games in 11 days. The first two are at home at the Saddledome against the Phoenix Coyotes Wednesday night followed by the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday night. They will then board an east-bound plane on Saturday to Detroit where they will face the Red Wings on Sunday afternoon. From there they will hit New York to play the NY Rangers on Monday, New Jersey Devils on Wednesday, Philadelphia Flyers on Friday and finally Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday afternoon. The team will need all hands on deck if they hope to have success down this crazy stretch of games. "We have to stick together," said Rene Bourque. "We have to take it one game at a time. We can't look up to who we're playing next. It's going to be a tough stretch, we're going to need everybody to play well and hopefully we start off on the right foot tonight." The Flames dropped a 5-4 decision in Glendale, Arizona on November 12th. They scored two goals in the last minute of regulation to try to tie the game but too little, too late for the Flames. They will look for revenge in the rematch Wednesday night in Calgary. "We can't turn the puck over at the wrong times," Bourque said of the mistakes they made in Phoenix. " We can turn it over if we're trying to make a play once in awhile but at crucial times of the game like that, when we did, it ended up in the back of our net." Flames Captain Jarome Iginla will look to feed off of his strong performance last game in San Jose. He is under the scope in Calgary with the media and the fans. "We have to start getting on a roll and we have an opportunity here with two games at home," said Iginla. "Phoenix is a team in front of us, so it has to start tonight." "I'm looking to build on last game, I felt a lot better. I have to start putting some consistent games back to back." Game Day Media Notes Probable Flames lines: Probable Coyotes lines: Wolski, Belanger, Stempniak Whitney, Hanzel, Vrbata/ Upshall Fiddler, Korpikoski/ Pyatt, Turris/ Prucha or Bissonette D-Man pairings: Yandle, Morris Jovanovski, Aucoin Lepisto, Yonkman Bryzgalov will likely get the start in net.

The Flames jumped back on a plane after a disappointing 5-4 loss to the Phoenix Coyotes Friday night. An 'oh-so-close' come from behind for the Flames picking up a pair of goals in the final minute of regulation to come within one...turned out not to be enough for the win. The team arrived late into San Jose last night to get ready for a quick turn around game Saturday night in the Shark tank. Playing in San Jose against the Sharks is never an easy task, and the Flames have to be as ready as they possibly can. This marks the second of four meetings between the two teams with the Flames taking the first one in Calgary 4-0 on October 24th. Kiprusoff stopped all 27 shots thrown at him to record his 36 career shutout. Injuries for the Sharks: Defenseman Derek Joslin (upper body) is on injured reserve as well as defenseman Kent Huskins out with a lower body. Changes to the lineup has Craig Conroy and Brendan Mikkelson stepping back into the lineup with Steve Staios and Stefan Meyer watching from the press box. Even though Kiprusoff started Friday night in Phoenix, he is expected to get the start against the Sharks. Brent Sutter may shuffle the lines slightly to try to fit Conroy in the middle somewhere, however, this most likely will be a game time decision. Game time is 8:00 pm MT on CBC (HD) and on radio Fan 960

The Flames finally snapped a four-game losing skid by beating the Colorado Avalanche 4-2 on Tuesday night in Denver. The Flames now move forward and look to pick up back to back wins on the road. The next stop on the three game road swing is in Phoenix against the Coyotes and will conclude in San Jose Saturday night in the Shark tank. The desert dogs are coming off of a 2-1 victory over the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday night. With the victory, the Coyotes (5-5-5) snapped a three-game winless streak. “We feel like we’re coming together." Coyotes Head Coach Dave Tippett said. "We’ve still got a ways to go, but players are starting to find their roles, find their niche on our team. Any time you can have success, it enhances that process. We’ll go home for two hard games and hopefully we can build on this.” Coyotes captain Shane Doan did not play Wednesday night against the Blackhawks due to a lower body injury and is not expected to be in the lineup tonight. Also out for the Coyotes is Shane Hnidy and Kurt Sauer. The Flames will see some juggling to their lines resulting in a completely new look for Friday night's game. Brendan Morrison will bump up to the top line centering Alex Tanguay and Jarome Iginla. The second line will see Hagman, Backlund and Moss skating together. The third line looks to be Glencross, Jokinen and Bourque while the fourth line has Meyer together with Stajan and Jackman. Miikka Kiprusoff is expected to start in net against Ilya Bryzgalov for Phoenix. FLAMES PROBABLE LINEUP Gametime is 7:00 p.m. on TSN (HD)and The Fan 960 Radio.

The Flames play the first of three road games tonight against the swift skating Colorado Avalanche. They are looking to break a four-game losing streak. There is a definite sense of urgency to this game. "It's time to do the things that make us successful and gel as a team," said Alex Tanguay. "Right now we are all focused on the outcome. There is a process to get to that outcome. We'll get there. We have too much experience." The Flames are also looking to get back to putting the puck in the net. During a three-game winning streak just prior to this recent slump, the Flames scored 15 goals, or an average of five per game. They scored five against the Avs on November 4 in a 6-5 loss that started this little slide. Since then they have scored just four goals in three games. Tanguay believes that the scoring punch will return. "We've got all the skills to put the puck in the net," he said. The one line-up change sees Curtis Glencross back in the line-up after missing one game with a lower body injury. TONIGHT'S PROBABLE LINE-UP Gametime is 7:30 p.m. on Sportsnet West and The Fan 960. Blog Post by Mike Board @nhlflames/twitter

Hello, It's gameday at the 'Dome as the Flames prepare to host the Detroit Red Wings (7:30, TSN, The Fan 960)and it would appear that the big news today is that David Moss will return to the line-up. Moss, you may recall, hurt his shoulder in the pre-season. He had been playing center during the pre-season but will line-up tonight in his more familiar right wing position on a line centered by Mikael Backlund with Rene Bourque on the left side. This will be Game 1 for Moss this season. Posted by Mike Board