5 Things - Flames vs. Blackhawks

1. Get The 'W'

Ending on a high note.

That's the goal.

The Flames look to finish off this homestand with a victory and the much-needed accompanying two points when they host the Blackhawks tonight, their final game before the league's all-star break.

They don't return to the ice until Feb. 6 when they start a four-game U.S. road swing in Boston, and their next home tilt on Scotiabank Saddledome ice isn't until Feb. 15 when they host San Jose.

Mired in a four-game losing streak, the perfect way to start their midseason break would be a victory to snap the funk.

Their most recent loss came Thursday, when they fell 5-2 to the visiting Blue Jackets.

Click here for full game recap

The good news in the game, of course, was the return of Oliver Kylington to the lineup for his first NHL tilt since 2022 (more on his night below in Fast Facts).

He received a raucous welcome from the C of Red when he was announced in the starting lineup.

"This was nothing I could ever expect," he said after. "When you see people writing to you, people cheering for you, applauding you, it really touches you in a way I wasn’t expecting.

"It means a lot."

2. Know Your Enemy

This most-recent Blackhawks road trip has been one giant pothole after another.

Chicago has gone 0-3 so far on their Western swing, losing 2-0 Monday to the Canucks before suffering back-to-back losses Wednesday and Thursday, falling 6-2 to the Kraken and then 3-0 to the Oilers.

They are now 3-8-0 in their last 10 and sit a league-worst 14-33-2 (tied with the Sharks at 30 points but having played one more game).

The 'Hawks are dead last in road victories with just four to go along with 23 losses, including 19 straight defeats.

“I think everyone has to dig deep, guys take it differently, but it’s definitely hard on everyone,” Chicago blueliner Isaak Phillips told NHL.com's Gerry Moodejonge following the loss in Edmonton. “We’ve said it a million times, but the effort is there for us; we’re in these games and we’re one shot away, two shots away the whole time.

“We’re getting through the zone, we’re getting in and then it’s almost like 1-and-done, so we just have to find a way to sustain pressure."

To their credit, they did get 27 shots on net but Oilers backstop Calvin Pickard turned them all aside.

Goals were hard enough to come by when rookie phenom Connor Bedard was in the lineup but his absence due to injury - along with that of some other key members of the squad - has really seen things dry up. They've been shut out in three of their last five games, and have scored the second-least amount of goals (105) behind San Jose (101), with Washington next (111).

“As a player, it's frustrating, I'm sure for the fans, it's frustrating, but we got to find a way to start putting pucks in the net,” MacKenzie Entwistle told Blackhawks.com's Kara Keating.

3. Fast Facts

Kylington's Return:

On Thursday night, Oliver Kylington suited up for his first NHL game since May 26, 2022, logging 13:16 of ice time over 19 shifts, registering one shot. The Stockholm native was the Flames' second-round pick (60th overall) in the 2015 NHL Draft and has now skated in 169 games in his career with 14 goals and 33 assists for 47 points. Kylington has the seventh-highest career plus/minus rating among all defencemen from the 2015 NHL draft at +30, and among the six defenceman. he trails is teammate Rasmus Andersson (T-4th, +36).

Zary Good?

With his goal on Thursday night, Connor Zary (38 GP) required the fourth-fewest games by a Flames player in the past 25 years to reach 10 NHL tallies, behind Sean Monahan (26 GP), Josh Jooris (33 GP) and Johnny Gaudreau (36 GP). Zary has also registered 13 assists for 23 points, which ranks eighth among rookies this season. Zary’s +14 rating is currently second among the 2023-24 rookie class, trailing only Ridly Greig (+16).

4. Did You Know?

With his assist on MacKenzie Weegar’s first-period marker on Thursday, Andrew Mangiapane now sits at 98 career assists and needs two more to reach 100.

5. Players to Watch

Flames - MacKenzie Weegar

Weegar has goals in three straight games to give him 12 on the campaign. The last Flames defenceman to score in three straight games was TJ Brodie in 2019-20, and Weegar has now tied Quinn Hughes for the second-most goals among blueliners so far this season, trailing only Rasmus Dahlin (13).

Blackhawks - Nick Foligno

The veteran scored once in the loss in Seattle and is fourth in team scoring with nine goals and 18 points this season.