The Calgary Flames will be happy to not see a plane again for a while after a successful 5 game road trip. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports
Since the beginning of November, our Calgary Flames have travelled:
- 3017 kilometres from Calgary to Montreal
- 939 kilometres from Montreal to Washington
- 902 miles from Washington to Tampa Bay
- 240 miles from Tampa Bay to Sunrise, Florida
- 1059 miles from Sunrise, Florida to Carolina
- **all numbers from google searches**
The Calgary Flames looked every bit of an over-travelled team as they simply did not have the energy to keep up with the Carolina Hurricanes. The final score read 4-1 for Carolina.
While Jonas Hiller would probably like back the goal that went in off of his mask or the goal that Jeff Skinner squeezed through him, it was Hiller’s goaltending in the late stages of the game that kept the score respectable. That said, I’d expect to see Karri Ramo get the start when our Flames return home on Thursday to play the Arizona Coyotes.
Max Reinhart made his 2014-15 debut taking the place of Sven Baertschi (4 games played, -4). Mr. Reinhart finished a -2 in 10:52 of action while only winning 11% of his faceoffs (1-8). By default, Reinhart should play Thursday versus Arizona but for the “garbage” stat +/- might be, an 11% finish in the faceoff circle is a ticket back to Adirondack. Corban Knight waits in the shadows…you have to love the depth the Flames have at center!!
If the Flames wanted to audition another left winger in place of Sven Baertschi, may I recommend Bryce Van Brabant. With an assist in Adirondack’s game this evening, Van Brabant extended his scoring streak to six games.
Speaking of scoring streaks, Captain Mark Giordano extended his scoring streak to 7 games. Giordano now sits 5th in the NHL in points. I still have to look at the page twice to believe it.
I look forward to Thursday and the Calgary Flames erasing this memory.