Flames put forward lines in blender to try to fix scoring struggles
The Calgary Flames are once again looking for answers.
Losers of their last two games and six of their last nine, the Flames experimented with a set of new forward lines at today’s practice following last night’s 2-1 loss the the Seattle Kraken. Via Sportsnet 960’s Pat Steinberg, here’s how the team came out looking at practice today:
- Jonathan Huberdeau – Elias Lindholm – Yegor Sharangovich
- Connor Zary – Nazem Kadri – Martin Pospisil
- Andrew Mangiapane – Mikael Backlund – Blake Coleman
- A.J. Greer – Dillon Dube – Walker Duehr
- Extra: Adam Ruzicka
The move sees a return of Jonathan Huberdeau to Calgary’s top line, while also seeing the middle of the lineup flipped around. In reaction to the Huberdeau move, Andrew Mangiapane is now joining Mikael Backlund and Blake Coleman on the team’s third unit.
Meanwhile, the defensive pairs from last night remained unchanged.
- Mackenzie Weegar – Rasmus Andersson
- Noah Hanifin – Chris Tanev
- Dennis Gilbert – Nick DeSimone
- Extra: Jordan Oesterle
Jacob Markstrom and Dan Vladar remain as the two goalies at practice, with both skating today.
The Flames currently sit fifth place in the Pacific Division, with 33 points in 35 games. Over their last 10 games, they’ve scored 28 goals, a rate that would rank them 28th league-wide at 2.8 goals per game over the course of the full season.
They’re just two games up on their provincial counterpart in the Edmonton Oilers, who are at 31 points in 31 games exactly and facing the Kraken tonight.
The Flames hit the ice on New Year’s Eve for a 6 pm MT home matchup against the Flyers, before embarking on a four-game road trip in the first week of January to kick off the new year.
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