Good morning Calgary Flames fans! It may be a Monday morning but we have a lot to be happy about; like the Flames being closer to the playoffs.
The Calgary Flames beat one of their Pacific Division rivals last night, the LA Kings, to inch that much closer to a secure playoff spot. The Flames now have an 11 point lead over the Kings and many people are saying that the Flames basically clinched at this point.
The Flames magic number is now down to 6: Meaning for every Flames win, that number drops down by 1. For every Kings loss in regulation, that number drops down by a 1. For every OT loss by any of them, that number drops 0.5. When that number hits 0, the Flames will clinch a playoff spot.
And what’s a post-game exciting win without some post-game comments?
Calgary Flames
Via Calgary Herald:
"“It’s a great spot we’ve put ourselves in,” said Flames captain Mark Giordano. “I mean, you look at where we were and where we’ve come all year. But all you have to do is look at the schedule and look at the upcoming games to know that we have to pile up as many points as we can as quickly as we can and go from there.”"
For more post-game recap, go here.
Something else that happened last night that’s not so fun is involving rookie Matthew Tkachuk. For half the season, he was getting into as many scrums as he could and getting as more penalties than Flames coaching staff would have liked. But he still put up the points the team needed.
However, he quieted down a bit and was laying low, but still putting up the points. I mean, he still liked to get under players’ skin, don’t get me wrong. But he seemed to have matured a little.
Then last night, he had somewhat of a dirty elbow hit to the face of Drew Doughty. There was no initial call on the play and Doughty would remain uninjured, however Tkachuk will now be having a hearing with player safety.
Now, Doughty had some not so nice things to say about Tkachuk, to put it lightly. Calling him a dirty player and what-not. And this is what Tkachuk had to say about the matter.
Via Calgary Herald:
"“I was just trying to protect the puck and he kind of jumped around and I extended my arm to protect it,” Tkachuk said. “I did the same thing to him earlier in the play, so I think he wanted to try to jump around it this time.”"
Some links surrounding the Flames to get you through your morning
‘A great spot’: Flames victory over Kings giant step towards playoffs (Calgary Herald).
Gaudreau, Monahan lead Calgary Flames over Los Angeles Kings 5-2 (Global News).
Tkachuk to face hearing after elbowing Doughty in match against Kings (Calgary Herald).
Flames ink top goalie prospect Parsons to entry-level contract (Calgary Herald).
Some other links surrounding hockey and the NHL
5 things we learned in the NHL last week: We all eventually get hit in the face (CBC Sports).
Sidney Crosby is 1st to reach 40 goals after hat trick (CBC Sports).
Brad Marchand leads 3 Stars of the week (NHL.com).
Next: Battle of Alberta on the Horizon in Mid-April?
That’s all in this edition of Flames Daily! And congrats to Brian Elliott for getting NHL’s third star of the week. He’ll always be the number 1 star in my heart.