5 THINGS - FLAMES VS. CANADIENS
The Flames look to build off Tuesday's win tonight when they host the Habs
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PRE-GAME VIDEO
Game Day with Brendan Parker
Pregame Interviews
PRE-GAME FEATURES
Projected Lineup
Say What: 'It's A Special Place'
STAT PACK
Media Game Notes
Scoring Leaders
2022-23 Head-to-Head Stats
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Video: Brendan Parker sets up tonight's tilt
Leading Scorers:
Flames:
Points - Tyler Toffoli, Elias Lindholm, Rasmus Andersson (16)
Goals - Nazem Kadri, Toffoli (8)
Canadiens:
Points - Nick Suzuki (24)
Goals - Cole Caufield, Suzuki (12)
Special Teams:
Flames:
PP - 20% (22nd) / PK - 80% (14th)
Canadiens:
PP - 14.9% (31st) / PK - 81.3% (10th)
Advanced Stats:
Flames:
Shot Attempts: 53.73% (4th)
High-Danger Chances: 51.47% (15th)
Canadiens:
Shot Attempts: 49.38% (20th)
High-Danger Chances: 44.27% (26th)
Well, that's one way to kick off a five-game homestand.
On Tuesday, the Flames hosted Matthew Tkachuk and the Florida Panthers and were able to ignite their offence almost immediately, opening the scoring with a short-handed marker off of Dillon Dube's stick just 3:05 into the game and rolling on from there.
The 6-2 victory also featured goals from Jonathan Huberdeau, Rasmus Andersson, Brett Ritchie, Tyler Toffoli, and Andrew Mangiapane.
"I think it was a good way for us to start the week and start the homestand," Dube, who also picked up two assists in the win, said afterwards. "It was our goal tonight, whether it was a 1-0 hockey game or whatever the score was, we needed to win and get that home ice advantage for the start of this swing, so it's going to be really good for us."
Video: Condensed Game: Panthers @ Flames
The Flames were particularly effective on the special teams side of the equation, killing off four penalties, scoring a short-handed goal, and netting a powerplay marker.
"I thought we were pretty good, right through," head coach Darryl Sutter said in his post-game media address. "Obviously that shorty right away, the powerplay (goal) ... tonight was more about timely goals, I think. We score the first goal and then the 4-2 goal and then 5-2 goal, those are big goals for us."
In net, Dan Vladar put forth another excellent performance, stopping 31 of the 33 shots he faced.
"He was solid," Sutter said. "There was probably four or five really good (saves). He was solid. I liked the way he covered pucks and moved pucks."
After picking up two wins on the road, the Canadiens returned to the confines of the Bell Centre on Tuesday to host the San Jose Sharks.
Their offence sputtered against their Pacific Division foes and they dropped a 4-0 decision before taking off for their four-game road trip.
"I thought 5-on-5 we had the puck pretty much the whole game," Nick Suzuki told NHL.com. "They did a pretty good job of staying in the middle, blocking shots. We were skating around the zone a lot but not getting those prime opportunities."
The Canadiens had six opportunities with the man advantage on Tuesday, including a 55-second 5-on-3 run, but were unable to get anything past a stingy Sharks defence corps that blocked 28 shots thoughout the night.
"It wasn't like they were all over us and we didn't have an answer," Mike Matheson told NHL.com."I think we were all over them for the most part of the game. It's just one of those ones you have to credit them for the amount of shots they blocked. I think that was kind of the recipe of the game. We generated a lot of chances but didn't quite get them through to their goalie."
The lose brings their record to 11-10-1 with 23 points on the year, ranking them sixth in the Atlantic Division, four points back of third-place Tampa Bay.
Tonight also marks the return of Sean Monahan (more on that below), who was traded to Montreal in the summer.
Video: "I spent almost half my life here ... it's special"
HOT STARTS: The Flames came out of the gates hot to start the game on Tuesday night against the Panthers, finding the net three times in the opening 20 minutes with an even-strength goal, a short-handed goal, and a power play goal. That was the third time they've scored three goals in the first period this season, with the other two times coming against Edmonton to open the season on Oct.15, and LA earlier in November. They have 27 first period goals and are tied for the second most goals in the first period in the NHL behind the Vegas Golden Knights.
MONY'S BACK: Sean Monahan will be making his first trip to Calgary through the visitor's entrance as he gets set to face his former team for the first time since being traded from Calgary in the off-season. Monahan was tied for the highest draft pick in Flames franchise history when he was drafted sixth overall in 2013 and played 656 games in a Calgary Flames sweater with 462 points. The Brampton, Ont. native has the 17th most points by an Atlanta/Calgary Flames draft pick in NHL history (476). Monahan's 212 goals are also the eight most in franchise history. He is also tied for first in overtime goals in franchise history (11)
DID YOU KNOW?: Tyler Toffoli was a member of the Canadiens for parts of two seasons and was a key contributor of the Canadiens team than went to the 2021 Stanley Cup Finals with 14 points (5G, 9A) in 22 playoff games, including the series clincher in overtime against Winnipeg. He was acquired by the Flames via trade last season.
MacKenzie Weegar played his first NHL game against the Montreal Canadiens back on Apr. 3, 2017.
Stick tap to Flames Communications Coordinator Jordan Bay for compiling these notes.
Follow him and the Flames PR team @FlamesPR on Twitter for more.
Flames - Dillon Dube
The kid from Cochrane is red-hot right now.
He's coming off of a three-point night against the Panthers on Tuesday and has three goals and five points in his last five games.
Video: FLA@CGY: Dube puts Mangiapane's pass home for a SHG
Canadiens - Sean Monahan
Sean Monahan has suffered from injury woes throughout his career but since joining the Canadiens roster in the fall, he's been healthy and productive for his new club.
He currently sits fourth in team scoring with five goals and 14 points through 22 games and heads into tonight's tilt with five points in his last five skates.
MacKenzie Weegar on building off of Tuesday's offensive output:
"Confidence-wise, for a lot of the guys, it's nice to see some results. A lot of the guys in here have been creating a lot of chances but just not seeing results."
