Calgary Flames Host Ottawa Senators Tonight

Photo Credit: Perry Nelson-USA TODAY Sports

It was a heart-breaking loss for the Sens last night against the Oilers when they fell by a score of 3-2. Tonight, the Ottawa Senators visit Calgary in hopes of redeeming themselves against the Flames.

There wasn’t a lot of action during the trade countdown, but the movement inside the organization was plentiful. The injury list is lengthy, which has forced the Flames to call up some players from the Abbotsford Heat.

The goaltending situation in Calgary took a last-minute turn as Reto Berra was traded to the Colorado Avalanche at the deadline. (I will be discussing the trade moves in a later write-up.) So, according to Pat Steinberg on twitter, in tonight’s game, Joey MacDonald will be backup to Joni Ortio, who gets the start because Karri Ramo is still out with a knee injury.

As for other injuries, Curtis Glencross is still out with an ankle injury, David Jones has an upper body injury, and Kevin Westgarth has a concussion. Matt Stajan isn’t in the line-up for personal reasons and, as Steinberg tweeted earlier, T.J. Galiardi is said to be hurt and questionable for tonight’s game.

With all the space left open on the bench, Max Reinhart and Corban Knight have been called up from Abbotsford to fill in some of the holes, while Derek Smith has been sent back down.

The Flames are going to need as much help as possible tonight considering that Erik Karlsson has 57 points in 62 games and was a stand-out player for Team Sweden in the Olympics. Jason Spezza has 47 points in 57 games and Chris Neil has accumulated 132 penalty minutes this year.

I believe that Calgary players will need to play a full 60 minutes and not let up in any position if they hope to win against the Sens tonight because Ottawa has proven that they may be down at times but you can never really count them out of the game. They have a tendency to come back and make a game of it in the last part of the night, so the Flames will have to score first in order to create some momentum and hopefully keep it up during the entire game.

Go Flames!