Flames Game Day: Flames VS Penguins

LINEUPS

Pittsburgh
Steve Sullivan - Evgeni Malkin - James Neal
Chris Kunitz - Jordan Staal - Tyler Kennedy
Matt Cooke - Mark Letestu - Pascal Dupuis
Craig Adams - Joe Vitale - Arron Asham

Kris Letang - Deryk Engelland
Paul Martin - Zbynek Michalek
Matt Niskanen - Ben Lovejoy

Marc-Andre Fleury
Calgary
Alex Tanguay - David Moss - Jarome Iginla
Curtis Glencross - Olli Jokinen - Lee Stempniak
Niklas Hagman - Roman Horak - Rene Bourque
Tom Kostopoulos - Matt Stajan - Tim Jackman

Mark Giordano - Scott Hannan
Chris Butler - Jay Bouwmeester
Anton Babchuk - Cory Sarich

Miikka Kiprusoff

That's right, no Crosby.  Though he's travelling with the Penguins, there is still no timetable for his return.  Flames fans will be happy to note that Jarome Iginla is playing tonight.

The Flames will be pitting the Jokinen line against the Pens' top unit of Sullivan, Malkin, and Neal.  Sutter has said that he wants Jokinen to play a North-South game without any of his "looping around", and we saw elements of this last season.  Joker is no Langkow or Kesler, but he proved that he can be at least adequate in this role last season.  Now, however, he doesn't have the excuse of being introduced to a new role.  It will be interesting to see how it goes.

THE SORROW

That's right, I'm going to complain about this here.  We as Flames fans were dismayed to hear of the injury to young center Mikael Backlund, whom we were hoping would be the answer to the question "Who is that centering Iginla and Tanguay?  He looks great!"

THE ELATION

On the plus side, Czech center Roman Horak made the Flames roster out of camp.  Who?  Well, he is mostly known as "the guy they got in the Tim Erixon trade" which is true.  He was fellow Flame Ryan Howse's linemate on the Chiliwack Bruins of the WHL last season--and likely the main reason Howse scored 51 goals.  Though Horak didn't get any points in the preseason, he looked like a pro in every game he played; he won faceoffs, controlled the puck well, got a few scoring chances, and made life easy for his linemates (often Rene Bourque and Lee Stempniak).  I don't know of a single person who wasn't surprised by his performance in camp.

Chris Butler figures to start playing alongside Jay Bouwmeester.  There is a lot of speed on that pair, though I'm not confident in Butler playing as a top 4 defenseman full time.  Giordano-Hannan figures to be the shutdown pair, which scares me a little as Giordano has never played against 1st line competition before.

Speaking of Giordano, he was recently named an assistant Captain.

Miikka Kiprusoff  is within one win of a franchise record.

THE OPPONENT

The Penguins looked like the better team in their game against the Vancouver Canucks the other night (a 4-3 shootout win).  Notably, Matt Cooke played a relatively disciplined game, scoring 2 goals in the win.  Malkin had a fairly tough night, as he was fighting the puck for a lot of the game.  Still, being the most talented player on either team has its perks, and he scored the winning goal in the shootout.  Expect him to be the best player on the ice tonight.  I feel sorry for Olli Jokinen.  Marc-Andre Fleury was solid in the win, though he can be much better.

Apparently defenseman Brooks Orpik is out tonight.  Not sure if that matters too much, because the Pens' defense still looks better than the Flames'.