5 Things - Flames vs. Penguins

1. Pen-cil Him In

Head Coach Ryan Huska lamented a lack of offensive pace during Monday's overtime loss to the Devils.

But a day on, his lineup got an injection of energy with the return of Slovak speedster Martin Pospisil.

Sidelined for the entire regular season, save two AHL appearances this past weekend with the Wranglers, Pospisil lined up at practice Tuesday centring a line with Adam Klapka and Ryan Lomberg on his wings.

Three high-energy guys.

Three guys, too, who can cause chaos on the ice.

An intriguing combination for the bench boss.

"I like having a harder group of guys that you can throw on the ice that have the ability to impact or change the momentum of a game," Huska said Tuesday, when asked about the trio's potential. "Those guys have that. Number one, they're they're all physical players, Number two, they can all play, and I think that helps in today's day and age where you can't just throw guys on the ice that can't impact the game with the puck. Adam has shown that he's got better hands than most people give him credit for. Ryan Lomberg's got the sneaky speed and Pospisil is very direct. That's how he goes to the net.

"So there are three guys that can play, but they also bring an element of 'we're gonna put as much pressure on a defence' as they possibly can, and hopefully that sets our team up well as the game goes on."

Should the trio line up together tonight, when Calgary continues its homestand at the Scotiabank Saddledome versus visiting Pittsburgh (TICKETS), that trio will certainly be counted on to bring energy and noise to the playing surface.

And home is where both of Pospisil's potential linemates have brought their scoring touch, too. Six of Lomberg's seven points this year have come at the 'Dome, while Klapka has put up eight of his 11 this season in Calgary. Klapka nearly had a ninth Monday, too, were it not for a pesky crossbar that pinged his rip of a first-period snapshot away from danger.

Energy, emotion and sneaky skill.

Three features that together, might just be greater than the sum of their parts.

As Huska and his staff work to determine which equation of roster players will best suit them against Pittsburgh, even having Pospisil as an option is a step in the right direction.

For the player. And for the team.

2. Know Your Enemy

Pittsburgh extended its point streak to five games Monday afternoon, as the Penguins opened up their four-game Pacific road swing with a 6-3 victory in Seattle. Connor Dewar - who previously plied his trade as Dustin Wolf's teammate just up I-5 with the WHL's Everett Silvertips - scored twice, while Justin Brazeau's tally 2:21 into the third period stood up as the decider.

Dewar's second tally - an empty-netter - served as his 11th goal of the campaign, setting a new career high.

"He’s always working,” Pittsburgh Head Coach Dan Muse relayed to reporters after the game. "It’s everybody on that line, but I can’t speak enough about him and the impact that he’s made this year.

"Just the way he plays the game, everything’s hard. He’s always playing it the right way."

It's that type of hard-working, Steel City attitude that's gotten the Penguins to within two points of second place in the Metropolitan Division, too. Pittsburgh is 6-2-2 in the month of January, though one of those two regulation defeats came at the hands of the Flames 11 days ago.

At age 38, Sidney Crosby continues to lead the way. The future Hall of Famer has 26 goals and 55 points, while also being a fixture in each of Pittsburgh's 48 games to date in 2025-26. He's one of only eight players this season to hit double-digits in powerplay goals (10) this season.

The Penguins made a trade Tuesday, too, acquiring former Calgary defenceman Ilya Solovyov from the Colorado Avalanche. Solovyov, a seventh-round pick of the Flames in 2020, played his first 15 NHL contests in Calgary silks, while spending four seasons in the AHL with Stockton and the Wranglers. He scored his first career NHL goal - as a member of the Avalanche - Jan. 10.

3. Fast Facts

2025-26 Season Series

This evening's game marks the second meeting inside two weeks between the Flames and Penguins, with the season set wrapping up tonight at the Scotiabank Saddledome.

Calgary scored a 2-1 victory two Saturdays ago at PPG Paints Arena on goals from Connor Zary and Matt Coronato, while Devin Cooley turned aside 27 of the 28 shots he faced between the pipes.

Did You Know?

New Flames defenceman Zach Whitecloud became just the second Bemidji State University alumnus to appear in an NHL contest with Calgary Monday night.

The first? 1989 Stanley Cup champion and Minnesota product Joel Otto, who captained the Beavers to an undefeated 31-0-0 record in their 1983-84 NCAA Division II championship campaign, putting up 75 points (32G, 43A) along the way.

Otto's 204 points rank third all-time among Bemidji State scoring leaders, and his No. 24 was retired by the Beavers in 2003.

4. Mr. 600

It's a milestone night for MacKenzie Weegar, who this evening is slated to suit up in his 600th career NHL game.

Not bad for a seventh-round pick! In fact, only 12 defencemen in NHL history selected in the seventh round of the NHL Draft have played 600 contests in the League.

Weegar's NHL journey - with the Florida Panthers - began in Montreal in April of 2017, but each of his last 293 NHL appearances have come in a Flames uniform since being acquired in 2022. Over that span, the Ottawa product has scored 35 of his 62 career goals, and 146 of his 267 career points, with his 20-goal campaign in 2023-24 serving as a high-water mark.

He has two goals and five points in 15 career games against the Penguins.

5. Players To Watch

Flames - Zach Whitecloud

Right off the hop, Whitecloud looked right at home Monday in his Flames debut.

The newcomer logged over 22 minutes of ice-time on a pairing with Kevin Bahl, finishing the night with a pair of shots on goal after a whirlwind 36 hours or so that brought him to the Stampede City from Las Vegas.

It was that steadiness - and early chemistry with Bahl - that persuaded Head Coach Ryan Huska to keep sending Whitecloud over the boards, too.

"I think if there was stretches or shifts that were back to back shifts where he looked like he was underwater, struggling with catching his breath or being on top of this game, then you can reevaluate," Huska said Tuesday. "But they started the game really well, those two, and I think it gave us a lot of confidence in the pair to be able to play against (New Jersey centre Jack) Hughes all night.

"Once they kind of got over their first few shifts together and we saw what they were going to look like, then it was no issue for us to continue to play them against that line."

Penguins - Anthony Mantha

The former Flame is putting up career numbers in a bounce-back season with Pittsburgh. Limited to just 13 contests in a Calgary uniform last season (during which he collected four goals and seven points), Mantha has scored 14 times for the Penguins, totalling 32 points to this juncture in the season.

He had two helpers Monday night in Pittsburgh's 6-3 win at Seattle.

Mantha's career high for goals came during the 2018-19 campaign, when he scored 25 as a member of the Detroit Red Wings.