Good morning Calgary Flames fans! We’ve been waking up every morning the last week to see Flames in a playoff spot. Let’s look at Flames news.
First things first, let’s briefly talk about the Calgary Flames overtime win against the Nashville Predators last night. They gave up a 4-1 lead which they had by early second period and managed to be down 5-4 heading into third. Let’s give some thanks to Mikael Backlund for tying it up and giving Flames at least a point.
This game would go to overtime which the Flames won the faceoff and had possession which is crucial in 3-on-3. They had possession the entire OT and finished the game 43 seconds into OT. Thanks to the captain Mark Giordano for the game-winner.
There’s a full post-game recap here.
Post-game comments
Let’s take a look at some post-game comments.
Via calgaryflames.com:
"“I think that’s a good lesson for our group down the stretch here,” Giordano said. “There’s going to be some downs. There’s going to be some ups. That’s some pretty good character to show in the third to come back and tie that and then win it.”“It’s a battle. We’re in a battle,” coach Glen Gulutzan said. “This is what it’s like to battle another team that’s trying to claw and scrape to be in the playoffs. I thought there was a lot of character shown by both clubs…them coming back and their push in the second and our push-back in the third showed a lot for our group.“Passion. You saw it in our group. That’s what those guys are doing. It’s what we’ve talked about all year is their battle and passion-level they’re a great group.”"
Now let’s move on to another topic of conversation that always seems to be a topic of conversation.
Dennis Wideman
With the acquisitions of defecemen Michael Stone and Matt Bartkowski, there’s not a whole lot of room at the blue line. And this now affects Dennis Wideman.
Calgary Flames
Wideman was finally a healthy scratch for last night’s game when the Flames wanted to play Stone and Bart together. I probably shouldn’t share how happy Twitter was about this…
Wideman is now, as Eric Francis puts it, the ‘odd man out’. The Calgary Flames are stuck in a bad contract with Wideman. He has a $5.25 million salary and many believe he in no way deserves that. Francis actually asked GM Brad Treliving if he had approached Wideman to waive his no-movement clause and he said he didn’t want to get into any of that (Via Calgary Herald).
And during yesterday’s game, Ryan Leslie said that Wideman being a healthy scratch wasn’t performance based and apparently a lot of teams are interested in Wideman. Fans had two separate reactions to this. Half of people were either laughing because that is a complete like. And the other half were hoping that we were going to be seeing a mid-game trade involving Wideman. I was a bit of both. But sorry guys, Wideman is still a Flame.
Some links surrounding the Flames to get you through your morning
Flames blow lead, rally back to down Preds in OT (CBC Sports).
Treliving mum on Wideman waiving NMC (TSN).
Why the Flames should be buyers and sellers at the trade deadline (Yahoo Sports).
Eric Francis: Wideman odd-man out in Flames defence (Calgary Herald).
Some other links surrounding hockey and the NHL
Chasing Bobby Orr: Brent Burns has a real shot at history (CBC Sports).
NHL teams expected to pick up trading pace over next week (Durham Region).
Red Wings prepare to be sellers (NHL.com).
Next: Flames acquire another Michael from the Coyotes
That’s all in this edition of Flames Daily! Do you think we’ll be fortunate enough to see a Dennis Wideman trade before deadline?