Calgary Flames Daily: Feeling the effects without injured players

After a third straight loss, the Calgary Flames could use the return of their injured players at any time now.

After three consecutive losses, the Calgary Flames could really use some of their injured players right now, especially their star goaltender. This isn’t to say that David Rittich and Jon Gillies have been bad because they’ve held up their own, but yesterday Gillies let in two soft goals that Mike Smith would have most likely stopped.

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Some good news though: Smith has been practicing and has been taking shots from goaltending coach Jordan Sigalet. Some more good news: Micheal Ferland was in practice without his no-contact jersey on anymore. Meaning he’s very close to return.

Kris Versteeg has also been practicing but with a no-contact jersey. We’re still not sure about his return, but we’re hoping it’s later this month.

Via Calgary Sun:

"“Ferly is feeling a bit better so we’ll monitor him today and see how the injury is after the skate,” said Flames head coach Glen Gulutzan. “Steeger is still a bit of ways off but now he’s at the point where he can do some pre-game skates and we’ll start to see how he progresses with some practice next week.”"

While the Flames have been playing good hockey, they’ve been undisciplined. And when they are disciplined, they put up 51 shots on net, but it’s on Henrik Lundqvist who has to be rude against the Flames and stop 50 of those shots.

The Calgary Flames tried to replace one of their two missing RW with Chris Stewart but that hasn’t exactly been working out. Let’s just hope someone returns by the next game. The playoffs are slipping away from right underneath them and if they don’t win about 70% of their remaining games, they can kiss the playoffs goodbye.

Related Story: Flames should have never picked up Chris Stewart

Some links surrounding the Flames

Flames Thoughts: Calgary needs its MVP back (Sportsnet).

Bettman blames old arena for Calgary Flames’ financial situation that ‘continues to deteriorate’ (CBC News).

Judge tosses $10.25M lawsuit against Calgary Flames defenceman, case goes to NHL arbitration (Global News).

Flames walking wounded making progress; Ferland and Versteeg skating (Calgary Sun).

Some links surrounding hockey and the NHL

The FanSided staff’s favorite all-time hockey jerseys in honor of #HockeyJerseyDay (FanSided).

5 things we learned in the NHL: Canadiens’ Galchenyuk still has hops (Sportsnet).

The 20 most notable trades from David Poile, the NHL’s winningest GM (Sportsnet).

Next: Flames put up 51 shots, lose to Rangers

That’s all in today’s Flames Daily!