5 Things - Flames vs. Islanders

1. Last Time Out

Thursday's tilt had more subplots than your average Game of Thrones episode.

First off - and most importantly - the Flames beat the Canucks 5-2 at the Scotiabank Saddledome to run their record to an impressive 4-1-1 in their last six outings.

Beating a divisional opponent - and a Canadian cousin, to boot - is always delicious, but it was made sweeter by the fact that Vancouver was the top team in the Western Conference at puck drop after their torrid start to the season.

Because let's be frank - throwing a little cold water on a red-hot rival is especially satisfying.

Elias Lindholm finished the night with a team-leading three points (1g, 2a) and - at one point - had four points on his ledger before an assist was taken away. Still a fantastic night.

Jonathan Huberdeau scored a dandy to bring the C of Red to its feet as No. 10 got himself back on the scoresheet.

Dillon Dube tallied continuing his torrid streak while wearing the iconic Blasty jersey.

The other two goals came courtesy of the blueline, MacKenzie Weegar and Noah Hanifin scoring as defencemen continue to play a big role in Calgary's offence.

And, just for good measure, Jacob Markstrom - while not as busy as Casey DeSmith at the other end of the ice as the Flames outshot the visitors 39-22 - turned in yet another excellent outing.

Oh, and Mr. Dube's tally just so happened to win a couple lucky fans a trip to Vegas as part of Cowboys Casino MInute-To-Win-It promotion.

All in all, not too shabby.

Now they just need to keep this streak going and grab another big two points tonight.

"It’s definitely a confidence boost, for sure," said Hanifin of the victory. "We’ve been playing pretty good hockey here as of late, obviously Vancouver, they’ve been on a roll, they’re a great team; I thought we did a good job of handling them in our own building, getting them on a back-to-back, we played them the right way, grinding them down as the game went along, that’s something we’ve been trying to do lately."

2. Know Your Enemy

The Isles have been sinking - losers of seven straight.

The two most recent did come after regulation, though, falling 4-3 in OT to the Canucks Wednesday and 4-3 in an eight-round shootout to the Kraken Thursday.

They will be wrapping up a four-game roadie tonight, which began with a 4-1 defeat to the Oilers on Monday.

In Seattle, Anders Lee opened the scoring early in the first period before the homeside notched two in a row to lead 2-1 after 20 minutes. Casey Cizikas had the lone marker in the second and then Noah Dobson put the Isles ahead just 1:48 into the third. However, Kailer Yamamoto tallied soon after to force OT and then the shootout, where he tallied again for the victory.

All three of New York's goals came on the powerplay, while Seattle had a pair on the man-up.

“The effort is there every night,” Head Coach Lane Lambert told Cory Wright from Islanders.com. “For whatever reason, we're not getting rewarded. There's only one thing to do and that's to keep going until you start to and then it can change quickly. We're playing well enough for it to change quickly. We just have to shore up some special teams situations.”

Lambert also quoted Lee, who said "we’re letting teams back into games because of our kill right now," and the hope is his team can start to right the ship Saturday here in Calgary.

“It's been an awful stretch, but there's have been games that we've played better than we have when were winning,” Lee explained. “A lot of our stuff in the neutral zone, five on five, we're getting out better, we're doing a lot of these things that are building our game. We just have a little bit of Achilles heel right now and it's costing us.”

3. This 'n' That

Last Time Out Here vs. The Isles:

The Flames last welcomed the Islanders to the Scotiabank Saddledome on Jan. 6, 2023 to the tune of a 4- 1 win. Blake Coleman scored the game-winner , and 10 different Flames recorded points in the winning effort. Jacob Markstrom was the Flames starter, and he turned aside 24 of the 25 pucks he faced, while defenceman MacKenzie Weegar was tied with a game-high three blocked shots.

We Noah Guy:

Noah Hanifin found the back of the net on Thursday’s win over Vancouver for his third goal of the season. With the goal, Hanifin has tied Derek Morris (34) as the 10th-highest scoring defenceman in Flames franchise history, trailing; Al MacInnis (213), Mark Giordano (143), Gary Suter (128), Paul Reinhart (109), Dion Phaneuf (75), Jamie Macoun (62), Phil Housley (50), T.J. Brodie (48), and Dougie Hamilton (42).

One Away From 500:

With his assist on Thursday night against Vancouver, Flames captain Mikael Backlund is just one point shy of 500 in his NHL career and is looking to become the 11th player in Flames franchise history to achieve the milestone. The most recent Flame to record his 500th point as captain was Mark Giordano who did so with an assist on April 4, 2021, against Toronto. Backlund has also skated in the third-most games in franchise history with 923, trailing only Giordano (949) and Jarome Iginla (1,219).

Stick tap to Flames PR guru Jordan Bay for these nuggets

4. Quotable

Rasmus Andersson on Jacob Markstrom:

"He’s one of the leaders in there, and he’s dialled in, every game, every practice. The fans should know how hard he works in practice, too; he sets the standard for all of us. He’s a really good teammate, he’s not the typical goalie, you know, he jokes around quite a bit, but when he’s serious, he’s serious, and when he’s dialled in, he’s dialled in."

5. Players to Watch

Flames - Elias Lindholm

His three-point night against Vancouver was his third multi-point game of the season. Lindholm now has 79 multi-point games since joining the Flames in 2018.

Islanders - Bo Horvat

The former Canucks star has four points in his last four games (1g, 3A), and is third in team scoring with 13 points (Dobson and Matthew Barzal have 14 each), and tied with Dobson for second in goals with five.