FLAMES AT HABS
Here are five things you’ll need to know when the Calgary Flames visit the Bell Centre on Thursday night (7:30 p.m., TSN2, RDS, TSN690 Radio),
1. The matchup
The Canadiens’ five-game winning streak ended Tuesday night with a 4-3 loss to the St. Louis Blues. The good news is that they came back to tie the score twice after falling behind 1-0 and 3-1, and they hung tough against a bigger and stronger team.
The schedule provides the Canadiens with a bit of a break because the Flames played Wednesday night in Toronto. Calgary went into that matchup with one win in their previous four games. The Flames are above .500 with a 1412-1 record.
2. Drouin getting better?
Jonathan Drouin has missed three games with a lower-body injury, but he could be poised for a return despite missing practice the past two days. Drouin was supposed to skate on Tuesday morning, but showed up in Brossard suffering from the flu. He was still ailing Wednesday, but the lowerbody injury has healed to the point where he’ll play when he shakes off the flu bug.
3. Pacioretty struggling
Max Pacioretty was the only Canadiens forward who didn’t earn a point in the 10-1 rout of the Detroit Red Wings Saturday. The captain has scored 30 goals in each of the past four seasons, but he’s stuck on eight after 29 games and has scored only once in the past 11 games. He leads the team with 121 shots on goal.
4. Benn matches career high
Jordie Benn has scored goals in each of the past two games and his four goals equal his career high for a season. Thanks to Ken Campbell of the Hockey News for noting that Benn has more goals than Erik Karlsson, Victor Hedman, Brent Burns and Dustin Byfuglien combined.
The hottest Hab, however, is Daniel Carr, with a goal and four assists in the three games since being recalled from the AHL’s Laval Rocket.
5. The other guys
Johnny Gaudreau is tied for third in the NHL scoring race with 36 points, four points behind leader Nikita Kucherov. Gaudreau has 12 goals and 24 assists.
The leading goal-scorer for the Flames is Sean Monahan with 15. Michael Ferland has chipped in with 11 goals.
The Flames’ Achilles heel has been defence. They have allowed 3.25 goals a game, which ranks 24th in the NHL.