Calgary's offense has been anemic
The Bolts will face off against the Calgary Flames on Thursday night, marking their third consecutive game in Western Canada. Admittedly, I haven’t watched much of the Flames this season, so when I started breaking this game down, I was shocked to see that, 29 games into the year, not a single Flame has reached 20 points yet. To put that into perspective, every other team in the NHL has at least one player with 20 points at this stage. What’s even crazier is that Calgary is still positioned fairly well in the standings. They sit in fifth place in the Pacific with 33 points, tied with Vancouver and just one point behind Edmonton.
Calgary has struggled to score goals. They rank 26th in goals per game with a meager 2.59. For a team that ranks ninth in total shot volume, that’s a pretty underwhelming number. But if the Flames aren’t scoring, how are they still winning games at a decent clip? The answer is fairly simple: They’re not, at least not in the games that Dan Vladar is in net. With Vladar starting, Calgary is just 6-5-4, good for a .400 winning percentage. However, they’ve managed to stay afloat in the standings thanks to a standout 23-year-old rookie: Dustin Wolf.
One man is keeping the Flames' playoff hopes alive
If you’re reading this, you’re probably familiar with Wolf, but just in case you’re not, here’s the rundown. The Calgary rookie netminder is one of the smallest goalies in the league, standing just six feet tall and weighing a slight 170 pounds. Despite his size disadvantage, he’s been one of the best goalies in the league this year, and some people are already calling him an early favorite for the Calder Trophy. Now, that might be a stretch, especially with the way others like Macklin Celebrini and Matvei Michkov are playing, but he's been remarkable - and after all, we haven’t seen a goalie win the Calder since Steve Mason in 2009 with the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Mason finished that season with 61 games played, 33 wins, a .916 save percentage, a 2.29 goals-against average, and 10 shutouts. Wolf’s numbers aren’t quite as eye-popping as Mason’s, but they’re still impressive. Wolf has played just 14 games, winning eight, with a .909 save percentage, a 2.84 GAA, one shutout, and he’s kept the Flames alive in the process.
I’m not sure who will get the start in net tonight, but if it’s Dustin Wolf, the Lightning will need to perform better than they did on Tuesday night. They scored just one goal on 22 shots and allowed multiple breakaways to Edmonton’s two stars in that game, resulting in a 2-1 loss. Missing Anthony Cirelli and Erik Cernak certainly didn't help the defense in that one either. Hopefully, they’ll return for tonight’s game. The puck will drop at 9:00 PM EST.