Calgary Flames Daily: Starting the New Year on a high note

With an overtime win in front of their fans vs. the Chicago Blackhawks, the Calgary Flames are ringing in the new year on a positive note.

With an overtime win to beat the Chicago Blackhawks and win in OT, the Calgary Flames are feeling great. Especially with Mark Giordano getting that overtime goal, making him the player to score the last goal of 2017. That’s pretty cool.

The Flames still have a bit of a hill to climb, but slowly and surely, they can get there. As long as they perform on the powerplay like they did in that game and their star players start contributing again, like that game vs. the Blackhawks, they’ll be alright.

The Flames are currently out of a playoff spot, but they’re not far off. They’re just two points back.

Calgary Flames /

Calgary Flames

Via Calgary Sun:

"“That’s it right there,” said Flames netminder Mike Smith who helped improve their record to 19-16-4 and 5-1 in overtime by making 34 saves. “We needed to find a way to win the game. It was a gritty one, we got out to a good lead there. No team in this league is going to roll over and die. We knew they were going to push. I’d like to see us find a better way to win a hockey game, but at the end of the day, you’re happy with the two points.”"

The Flames were outperforming many of their opponents in the month of December, but they couldn’t find a win in a lot of them. Getting wins in basically any way is a big confidence boost. Especially for Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan, who haven’t been putting up as many points as they should be.

"“It’s important for confidence-wise,” said Flames head coach Glen Gulutzan. “It’s like the points Johnny and Monny got, it’s important for confidence. In the last 12 games, we’ve played three games, including (Sunday night), that I would say were below average.“But we played nine really good ones and didn’t have much to show for it. A night like this is big.”"

On another side of things, the World Juniors quarter finals are going on today and all six Flames prospects who were participating in the tournament will also be in the quarter finals! Some good feelings among Flames scouts right now. And some good looks for the Flames future.

The Flames will resume play on Thursday when they’ll welcome the LA Kings at the ‘Dome.

Some links surrounding the Flames

Calgary Flames Top 10 Moments from 2017 (Matchsticks&Gasoline).

Mark Giordano scores overtime winner to lift Flames past Blackhawks (Sportsnet).

Flames ring in 2018 with OT win over Blackhawks (Calgary Sun).

Four players the Flames should trade for (The Hockey Writers).

Some links surrounding the NHL at FanSided

Eduardo Razo of Editor in Leaf, the Toronto Maple Leafs blog of FanSided, analyzed Leo Komarov’s playing time found here.

Matt O’Leary of Eyes on Isles, the New York Islanders blog of FanSided, made a power ranking for all 31 teams in the NHL on where they stand heading into 2018. That can be found here.

The annual New Years Day Winter Classic happened yesterday. Dave Stevenson of Puck Prose has the score, recap, and highlights here.