Calgary Flames daily: Suspensions and goaltending prospects

It’s a sad day for Calgarian sports fans with the Calgary Stampeders losing the Grey Cup yesterday. But at least Calgary Flames goaltending prospects look promising! More on that here and talking about a suspension.

This is the second year in a row that the Calgary Stampeders lost in the Grey Cup final. But at least Shania Twain had the most Canadian entrance ever into her half-time show. But we’re not here to talk about the CFL or how Calgarian sports fans are always upset. Let’s check out some news surrounding the Calgary Flames.

First and foremost, Gabriel Landeskog has been suspended for a cross-check to the face of Matthew Tkachuk on Saturday evening. He’s been suspended for four games. We’ll have more on that later today on our website.

On the plus side, Tkachuk seems to be fine after that cross-check. Now on to more exciting things.

David Rittich had his first NHL win against the Colorado Avalanche in that same game that Landeskog received a suspension for. He saved 24 of 26 shots for his first NHL win in just his second game. His first game came last season in the last game of the regular season, but he only played in the final period.

Something notable about Rittich is that he looked like he was a solid backup goaltender. He looked calm and made some confident moves, like poke-checking the puck when the Avs had a mild breakaway. And while I appreciate Eddie Lack‘s work ethic, fans didn’t seem to be as worried about Rittich in net than with Lack.

Via Sportsnet:

"“Very happy for him. He played well tonight, showed a lot of poise, was calm in net,” Backlund said. “He didn’t look too nervous out there, I don’t know if he was but I’m sure getting this win will help him moving forward.”"

We also have Tyler Parsons, who’s playing with the Kansas City Mavericks of the ECHL right now who’s been on a roll as of late. He had somewhat of a rough start, but he’s been improving dramatically.

Via Calgary Sun:

"For his efforts from Nov. 13-19, the 20-year-old netminder was dubbed the ECHL goalie of the week after going 4-0-0 with a 1.49 goals against average and a .957 save percentage.“For me, growing up and playing hockey, I’ve never looked at my numbers once in my entire life,” said the native of Chesterfield, Mich. “Numbers don’t matter. It’s you going out there every day and how the game goes. You have to watch the game to understand … every game is different just as long as you give your team an opportunity to win.”“You can have nights where you out-shoot the other team 35-15, but the other team has more scoring chances and could make you look bad on the numbers,” Parsons said. “So I don’t look at my own numbers and other goalies numbers. I don’t judge how well a player is off their numbers — I judge them on how it is when you play against them … I believe it’s how you come to play every single game.”"

Flames Tweet of the day

Hockey Tweet of the day

Some links surrounding the Flames

Rittich gets win in first career start as Flames beat Avalanche (Sportsnet).

Flames goaltending prospect Parsons putting up sparkling numbers in ECHL (Calgary Sun).

FLAMES EXTRA – THE CALIFORNIA CONDUIT (Calgary Flames).

Some links surrounding hockey and the NHL

NHL expansion: Houston would be a better option than Quebec or Seattle (FanSided).

At NHL’s start, Toronto was almost left out (Toronto Star).

NHL’s Best Goalie Pads Ranked (The Hockey Writers).

Next: Johnny Gaudreau could win Art Ross this season

That’s all in today’s Calgary Flames Daily!