Calgary Flames Predictions and Preview of the Week January 16-22
By Ramina Shlah
Thursday January 19th – NSH @ CGY
The Calgary Flames will continue their home stance against the Nashville Predators on Thursday. The Flames right now are 23-20-3 versus the Preds 20-16-7. The Preds are have 47 points compared to the Flames 49 points, however the Flames have a few games on hand on the Preds. So really, the Preds are in a playoff spot, points-percentage wise, while the Flames are one spot out.
The Predators right now have won their last three games and are 4-2-1 in 2017.
The Predators aren’t doing much worse than the Flames on the PP over the year. However since the start of December, they’re only 11.5% versus the Flames 31.9%. The Predators haven’t scored a power-play goal in their last five games and only have a 5.0% PP success rate in the New Year.
They’re also doing quite decent on the PK with 82.7% overall and 90.5% in the New Year.
The last time the Flames and Predators met which was last season, the Flames won 3-2 in overtime. But these are now two different teams so who knows what the outcome will be.
This game will be a bit of a challenge for the Flames because this is almost like a playoff game in a sense. However if they can take advantage of the Preds’ low PP success rate and not let them get PP opportunities, they could walk away with two points. Even if it has to go to OT.
Players to watch on the Predators:
- Austin Watson: On a four-game point streak
- Mike Fisher: Six points in his last six games; had two points against the Flames in their last meeting.
Players to watch on the Flames:
- Johnny Gaudreau: Had two goals in their last meeting
- Sean Monahan: On a two-game goal streak, went goalless in his previous 11 games.