Flames take six-pack on the road

“We’ve been keeping it simple, and our application of our systems has probably been better out on the road. We’ve been working through a few kinks here with our systemic play.” - Cory Sarich

The Calgary Flames hit the bricks, take to the highway and fly the friendly skies for their longest road trip of the season, a six-pack of games that take the club to Motown, the Arch, Music City, Sun City, the City of Angeles and Silicon City. The club plays three games in the next four days and three games next week before returning home on December 9th to tackle the Thrashers.

Here’s a preview of the three opponents the Flames will be facing in the next four days.

Game one: Friday, November 27 vs. Detroit

The Wings have lost four of their last six – including three straight at the Joe – are plagued with a plethora of injuries (Johan Franzen, Valtteri Filppula and Jason Williams) and have eight forwards in the lineup who are goal-less in at least eight straight games. Henrik Zetterberg leads the team with nine goals and 24 points but no Wing has yet to hit double digits in goals.

Detroit has always posed problems for the two main elements in the Flames lineup – Miikka Kiprusoff has a goals-against-average of 3.76 and a modest 3-3 record in his last six starts against the Wings while Jarome Iginla hasn’t scored against Detroit since 2004. The Wings won the only meeting between the two teams this year – the 3-1 Horror on Halloween that spawned coach Sutter’s skate-til-they-shake marathon on November 2nd.

Game two: Saturday, November 28 vs. Columbus

Blue Jacket bench boss Ken Hitchcock likes to run a tight defensive ship, but so far this season his fleet has been leaky at best and porous at worst. The Jackets have surrendered at least six goals in a game on half-a-dozen occasions – an event that occurred only four times in the entire 2008-09 season – and sixteen regulars are on the deficit side of the plus/minus ledger.

Goaltending sensation Steve Mason has been experiencing a sophomore slump, compiling an 8-6-3 record with a lofty 3.50 goals-against-average and mediocre .889 save percentage. On the plus side, the team stands second in the league in power-play efficiency and when they play to their defensive capabilities, they are a potent, dangerous club. The teams have split the season series so far, with Columbus edging Calgary 2-1 in their first meeting and the Flames undressing the Jackets 6-3 in the return match.

Game three: Monday, November 30 vs. Nashville

The Flames hit Music City just as the Predators are streaking up the charts. On Wednesday, Nashville erased a 3-2 third period deficit and rebounded to slide past the Colorado Avalanche and record their seventh consecutive victory with a 4-3 win.

Nashville doesn’t have a single player with more than seven goals (Jason Arnott) or more than 16 points (J-P Dumont) and stand middle of the pack in both penalty-killing (16th) and power-play (18th). What they do have is a disciplined approach, an enthusiastic mix of youth and experience and a talented Finnish goaltender – Pekka Rinne (11 wins, 2.34 GAA 2 shutouts) – who is challenging Miikka Kiprusoff for the #1 job in Team Finland’s Olympic crease. The Predators have compiled a tidy 14-8-1 record to sit second in the Central Division of the Western Conference. This will be the first meeting between the two Conference rivals this season. Calgary won all four meetings (5-3, 7-6, 3-2, 3-1) against Nashville in 2008-09.