5 THINGS - FLAMES VS. CANUCKS

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GAME DAY VIDEO
Game Day with Brendan Parker
Pre-Game Interviews
GAME DAY FEATURES
'Country' Boys - Mangiapane and Dube
Projected Lineup
STAT PACK
Head-to-Head Stats
Media Game Notes
Scoring Leaders
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Leading Scorers:
Flames:
Points - Elias Lindholm (43)
Goals - Johnny Gaudreau (19)
Canucks:
Points - Brock Boeser (41)
Goals - Boeser (20)
Special Teams:
Flames:
PP - 19.4% (18th) / PK - 80.5% (13th)
Canucks:
PP - 17.1% (25th) / PK - 78.2% (24th)
Advanced Stats:
Flames:
Shot Attempts: 52.79% (8th)
High-Danger Chances: 52.75% (10th)
Canucks:
Shot Attempts: 46.19% (29th)
High-Danger Chances: 45.71% (27th)

1. FIGHT 'TIL THE END

It hasn't been the year anyone expected.
But as the Flames close out the season with a stretch of four straight against the Vancouver Canucks, they still have plenty to play for.
"I think you're down to the short strokes in term of the evaluation of some of these players," explained Head Coach Darryl Sutter, who made great strides with this group in the back half of the campaign. "It's where they fit in, to be quite honest.
"Are they defenceman that can play in your Top 6 or Top 4; are they a forward who can play in your Top 9? That's basically what you're looking at.
"That's from an individual standpoint. You're also looking at it from a team standpoint.
"The team had to make a huge adjustment in terms of how the game is played in the league today and they're continuing to do that. That's how I want the team to play the last four games, to continue to make the adjustment to play at a pace and play at the execution level that you have to, to sustain."
Under Sutter, the Flames have a 12-14-0 record - but they've made considerable improvements in a number of different areas, including puck possession, shot volume, scoring chance rates and expected goal share.
"We never got a run, never got a streak going," said captain Mark Giordano, who will turn 38 next fall. "It's tough to say right now because of the position we're in, but I felt like the last 20, 25 games, we started playing the right way, started playing faster, started playing with more detail in our game. Unfortunately, because of where we were at in the standings, we couldn't afford a stretch like where we had, where we won - I think - one or two games out of 10. When you have a stretch like that, it's tough to climb back in."
Meanwhile …
The Canucks - who are almost on the outside looking in - are in the midst of a scheduling nightmare after almost the entire team (and support staff) came down with COVID-19 last month.
This is their seventh game in 10 days, and they're coming in on the heels of a 5-0 loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday - their ninth L in 14 games after returning from their unscheduled recess on April 18.

2. MONAHAN SHUT DOWN

With the Flames now out of the playoff race, it was time to shut things down.
Sean Monahan will miss the rest of the season and will undergo hip surgery next week. According to the team, he will be back and "ready for full participation" at training camp in September.
"He's a teammate I've been close with ever since I've been part of the Flames," said Milan Lucic. "He battled through a lot just to get through this season fighting with the hip injury that he's had. A lot of people say what they want to say about him, but at the end of the day, he's one of those guys that will battle through anything to help his teammates and try to help them to be in the best position they can. He's a really good character guy, he's a great teammate, and I wish him the best with his surgery and his rehab and recovery."
Sutter, in particular, has taken a shine to Monahan over the past few months. His hard work, attention to detail and vow to be a better 200-foot player needs to be commended.
The fact that he did so while being banged up like he was is a credit to the dedication he has not only to his craft, but to his teammates as well.
"It wasn't a two- or three-game thing," Sutter said. "He's done it for the last 20 games.
"It tells you about his character and his desire (to) give you what he's got. I've said that all along about him: Sean tried to do everything that I asked him to do, and he did it with pain.
"I give him a lot of credit."
Monahan scored 10 goals and 28 points in 50 games this year.

3. UP AND ADAM!

With a spot up for grabs in Monahan's absence, the Flames are now taking a good, hard look at 6-foot-4, 202-lb. prospect Adam Ruzicka.
The 22-year-old is coming off an excellent season with the Stockton Heat, leading the AHL club with 10 goals, and finishing tied for the top spot in points with 21 in 28 games. Between Feb. 24 and March 5, Ruzicka - a fourth-round pick of the Flames in 2017 - became the first player in Heat history to record four consecutive three-point outings.
At Wednesday's practice, Ruzicka was rotating on the fourth-line centre spot with fellow Heat grad Glenn Gawdin, who picked up his first NHL point the other night vs. Ottawa.
Josh Leivo and Brett Ritchie were on his flanks.
Meanwhile, Lucic moved up to take Monahan's post on the second line with Derek Ryan and Dillon Dube.
There's no guarantee that Ruzicka will play in any (or all) of the remaining games, but Sutter wanted to get a peek at the talented Slovak before the year was out.
"I want him to practice with the group, see how his feet were, see if he could keep up, and go from there," the coach said.

4. CONGRATS, FELLAS!

Summer can wait.
After all, Riga sure is beautiful this time of year!
On Wednesday, it was announced that Dillon Dube and Andrew Mangiapane will represent Team Canada at the upcoming IIHF World Hockey Championship in Latvia.
Nikita Nesterov (Russia) and prospects Connor Mackey (USA) and Emilio Pettersen (Norway) are also taking part in this year's tournament.
Dube has been on the national stage before - famously winning gold as captain of the 2018 World Junior squad, adding to a silver the year prior, and a first-place finish at the 2015 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament.
Mangiapane, meanwhile, has never before donned the maple leaf.
"It's an honour every time you get a call from Hockey Canada," Dube said. "It makes it a lot easier going over and knowing someone. With World Juniors you kind of know everyone, they're around your age and you play with them basically your whole life. To have Mang will be really nice. We're really close too, so to go through this with him will be good."
The Worlds will begin on May 21 and with the Flames finishing up their season with a 1:30 p.m. MT start on the 19th, the pair will miss the first couple of games as they clear the tournament's COVID quarantine rules.

5. QUOTABLE

"It's been hard. You look back and pinpoint more than a handful of games where we were tied or up a goal, down a goal, and we didn't take it into overtime - lost in regulation, didn't get those points we should have got. I could sit here and probably give you eight examples of it. But that's the frustrating and disappointing part, is we weren't able to pull through in those certain games.
"Also, the best win streak we were able to put together this year is a three-game win streak and it's tough to make the playoffs if you don't go on a five, six, seven-game run - or even have a run where you're 8-2 or 7-3, or 7-2-1, 9-1. If you look at all the teams that are in the playoffs, they've had that stretch throughout the year and for us, we didn't have that at all and to me that's the most disappointing part, especially because of the resiliency that I saw in this group, in this team, last year and even the year before when I was in Edmonton.
"I got to watch a lot when they finished first in the conference. They tied a lot of games up 6-on-5, winning in overtime, coming back in games, going on win streaks and all that type of stuff. That's the thing that I'm disappointed in as an individual and as a team, is that we didn't have that resiliency as a team this year."
- Milan Lucic on missing the playoffs this year