5 THINGS - FLAMES VS. OILERS

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GAME DAY VIDEO
Game Day with Brendan Parker
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GAME DAY FEATURES
How To 'Play Fast' - We Break It Down
Projected Lineup
Say What - 'We've Been More Dialled In'
STAT PACK
Head-to-Head Stats
Media Game Notes
Scoring Leaders
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Leading Scorers:
Flames:
Points - Elias Lindholm (24)
Goals - Johnny Gaudreau (11)
Oilers:
Points - Connor McDavid (52)
Goals - McDavid (17)
Special Teams:
Flames:
PP - 20.8% (15th) / PK - 80.7% (12th)
Oilers:
PP - 26.5% (7th) / PK - 75.6% (22nd)
Advanced Stats:
Flames:
Shot Attempts: 51.43% (10th)
High-Danger Chances: 51.40% (14th)
Oilers:
Shot Attempts: 49.66% (14th)
High-Danger Chances: 52.55% (9th)

1. LAST TIME OUT

As good as the Flames were in Darryl Sutter's debut, Saturday's rematch with the Montreal Canadiens took things to another level.
In fact, they were darn-near flawless.
Sean Monahan and the Flames put on a forechecking clinic, grinding the Habs down low and in the trenches, forcing turnovers and manufacturing offence from an unrelenting work ethic.
The result was a 3-1 victory, with the aforementioned Monahan scoring his 200th and 201st career goals to become the ninth player in franchise history to achieve that milestone.
Jarome Iginla, Theoren Fleury, Joe Nieuwendyk, Gary Roberts, Kent Nilsson, Lanny McDonald, Al MacInnis, and Eric Vail are the others.
"It's pretty cool," Monahan said of No. 200. "It's special when you win and you have a milestone, so it's something I'll probably remember here for a little bit.
"We're committed to doing it the right way right now. When you're forechecking hard and holding onto pucks in their end and turning pucks over, that limits time in their end and in the neutral zone, too. It's on and off our sticks right now and right behind their D, and that's how you get your offensive looks."
Monahan, by the way, is the top goal-scorer from the 2013 Draft, edging Nathan MacKinnon (196), Aleksander Barkov (166), Bo Horvat (132) and teammate Elias Lindholm (126) in career tucks.
Mikael Backlund had the other goal for the homeside, while Jacob Markstrom made 24 saves.
The Flames entered the two-game set with Montreal six points back of the final playoff spot.
The deficit has now been trimmed to two.
"We're still not even close where we want to be," said captain Mark Giordano. "What are we, a game over .500? There's a lot of work to do, but I think we have confidence in the way we're playing. We're playing quick and we're giving ourselves a chance to win, which is what we have to do for the rest of the year."

2. KNOW YOUR ENEMY

The Oilers are coming off a 2-1 loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday, snapping a four-game winning streak.
Leon Draisaitl scored for the fourth straight game and Mikko Koskinen made 26 saves for the Oilers, who were on the tail end of a back-to-back after handing the Ottawa Senators a 6-2 defeat on Friday.
"I thought we played pretty well for the most part," Draisaitl told EdmontonOilers.com. "We definitely had enough chances to win the game. Their goalie was good at the end, but I thought we had a couple chances where the puck could have easily went in. They made some good blocks. It's unfortunate."
Tyler Myers broke a 1-1 tie at 9:26 of the third period to put Vancouver in front, after the Canucks tallied a controversial opening marker that saw all 10 skaters and Koskinen lying sprawled in the blue paint for an extended period before the biscuit finally scooted across the goal line.
It was… weird.
"I've been around the game a long time and eight or nine times out of 10 that gets blown down, but I guess tonight it wasn't," Oilers Dave Tippett said. "They said it wasn't covered up, it banged around there and it ended up in our net."
This is the first of two straight meetings between the Oilers and Flames, with the rematch coming on Wednesday at the Scotiabank Saddledome (8 p.m. MT, Sportsnet).

3. OLIVER'S TWIST

The past three months have been a rollercoaster of emotions for Oliver Kylington.
When he signed his new contract less than a week before Christmas, there was no time to waste. He immediately had to pack up, book a flight and - most maddingly - start the laborious process of attaining a new work visa.
Naturally, like everything in a COVID world, he was immediately met with roadblocks.
And when he ultimately resolved that and set foot here in Calgary, Kylington then had to quarantine for another week before being allowed to participate in practice.
Six days after everyone else.
Thankfully, that all seems like a lifetime ago now. On Saturday, the rearguard drew back into the lineup for the first time under Sutter and made a strong impression with 16:02 of impeccable play.
"I think half of it is mental," Kylington said of waiting for his chance. "Physically, you're dialled in and working hard, but mentally, you need to be pretty sharp and prepared for when the opportunity comes."
The Flames dominated puck possession when Kylington was on the ice, controlling 70.37% (19-8) of the shot attempts - immediately ranking as one of the blueliner's best efforts of his young career.
If he gets a chance to build on that tonight, he'll be ready, sensing that everyone is getting a fresh start under the new skipper.
"We've been playing great these two games here with Darryl," Kylington said. "I think (we're playing) with a lot of structure and guys know what to do out there. To play with speed and quick puck movement, it's making it easy for everyone to play good hockey right now and we just need to stick with it here."

4. PLAYERS TO WATCH

Flames - Dillon Dube
Speaking of players on the verge of a breakout.
Dillon Dube is coming off another exceptional effort on Saturday, combining with linemates Matthew Tkachuk and Elias Lindholm to produce the best numbers on the team.
That line dominated at even strength, with a 19-8 split of the shot attempts, while out-chancing the Habs 11-3 - including 5-1 from the high-danger areas.
Dube is pointless in his last two, but you may recall it was only five games ago that he torched the Ottawa Senators for his first-career hat-trick, and followed that up performance with an assist on back-to-back nights immediately after.
"I think it's been good of late, especially these (last) two games," Dube said of his trio. "I think our line has been around it a lot. We've had a lot of chances and they're going to start going in for us. Our chemistry is going, for sure, and when that's going, it helps you individually.
"Especially at the pace we're going, our game is better because you're doing things quicker. It's a lot of fun out there with the way we're executing as a line."
The 22-year-old has 12 points (6G, 6A) in 25 games this year.
Oilers - Connor McDavid
At the risk of stating the obvious …
You might want to keep an eye on this guy.
It's the age-old question that surfaces every time the Flames and Oilers lock horns: Just how do you stop him, anyway?
"I don't think he's singled out the Calgary Flames as his main target," Head Coach Darryl Sutter said of No. 97, who leads the NHL with 52 points, including eight against the Flames this year. "I've watched the Oilers as much as I've watched Calgary and Vancouver, so - hey, he's a great player. Bottom line, he's head and shoulders the best player in the league. I don't think there's one player that stops Connor McDavid. He's a tough guy to stop.
"Just try and slow him down within the rules and limit his chances. Obviously, they've got a great powerplay and he pretty much dominates that part of the game, too, so it's on everybody to slow him down."

5. QUOTABLE

"I do have a life outside of hockey and I'm very fortunate, it's only three-and-a-half hours from Calgary. I went to Los Angeles because I felt at that time they were a team that could contend and win a Stanley Cup right away. In the back of my mind, losing in Game 7 with the Flames ... was the one thing that always led me to say, 'OK, if it was the right situation, I'd go back again.'
"I'm not interested in coaching 31 teams. I'm not interested in coaching just to coach. I'm coaching strictly to win a Stanley Cup and that's it. Nothing else.
"It's a hard job being a head coach and it takes a toll, and the only reward for a head coach in today's game is what's at the end of the tunnel."
- Darryl Sutter on what lured him back into coaching - and, specifically, here with the Flames