Friday Four: Flames among League's elite

Each Friday throughout the season Kevin Weekes will bring you his Friday Four. He will be blogging about four players, teams, plays or trends that have caught his eye.

Calgary Flames

The Flames are 20-10-2, in first place in the Pacific Division and one point behind the Nashville Predators (21-10-1) for the top record in the Western Conference. Calgary is 10-2-1 in its past 13 games, including a 6-5 come-from-behind win against the Philadelphia Flyers at Scotiabank Saddledome on Wednesday. They scored twice in the final 1:08 of the third period to tie the game before winning in overtime, and lead the NHL with seven wins when trailing after two periods (7-9-2).
Defenseman Mark Giordano could be the favorite for the Norris Trophy right now. His 32 points (four goals, 28 assists) are tied for third at the position and he's a plus-18. He has 10 power-play points and is averaging 1.07 points per game in 24:30 of ice time this season.

The Flames have five players with at least 30 points; no other team has more than three players. In addition to Giordano, forward Johnny Gaudreau has 42 points (13 goals, 29 assists), center Sean Monahan has 38 (20 goals, 18 assists), forward Matthew Tkachuk has 37 (13 goals, 245 assists) and center Elias Lindholm has 34 (16 goals, 18 assists).
Calgary ranks third in the NHL in goals for (113) and 10th in goals against (89). Backup goalie David Rittich has been excellent all season and No. 1 Mike Smith has performed better as of late. There really are no weaknesses in Calgary right now.

Tampa Bay Lightning

Goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy returned Thursday after missing 14 games with a fractured left foot and tied a Lightning record with 48 saves in a 4-1 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Amalie Arena to improve their NHL-best record to 25-7-1. It was an amazing performance by Vasilevskiy not only because of the missed time, but because of the opponent. Backup Louis Domingue did well in his absence, but the team is much different with their No. 1 back.
Center Steven Stamkos reached a milestone with his 700th NHL point, against the Colorado Avalanche last Saturday. Forward Nikita Kucherov is tied with Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon for second in NHL with 47 points (13 goals, 47 assists; Colorado forward Mikko Rantanen is first with 52 points) and center Tyler Johnson is beginning to stir with four points (two goals, two assists) in his past four games. Rookie forward Mathieu Joseph has 13 points (nine goals, four assists) and rookie defenseman Erik Cernak is averaging 17:45 per game.

Tampa Bay is clicking on all cylinders and is the best team in the NHL.

Anaheim Ducks

After a slow start, the Ducks (17-11-5) are 7-1-0 in their past eight games and 9-2-0 in their past 11 and are tied with the San Jose Sharks for second place in the Pacific Division, three points behind the Flames.
A big reason is they are finally scoring goals; they have 23 goals in their past five games, including six goals in three of them.
Center Ryan Getzlaf leads Anaheim with 26 points (eight goals, 18 assists) and his 900th NHL point in a 6-3 win against the Dallas Stars on Wednesday. Forward Ondrej Kase, limited to 15 games because of a concussion, had a hat trick in that game. Defenseman Brandon Montour has been very good with the Ducks missing Cam Fowler, out with facial fractures.
Goalies John Gibson and Ryan Miller have been outstanding for them. It's unfortunate Miller will be out approximately six weeks with a sprained MCL, which is why Anaheim claimed goalie Chad Johnson off waivers from the St. Louis Blues.

Detroit Red Wings

The Red Wings (14-14-4) are in sixth place in the Atlantic Division but are hanging around in the Eastern Conference wild-card race after a poor start; they trail the Montreal Canadiens by five points for the second wild card.
It has been a resurgent year for forward Gustav Nyquist, who has 29 points (eight goals, 29 assists) in 32 games after having 40 points in 82 games last season. He's on pace to break his NHL high of 54 points in 2014-15. And center Dylan Larkin, with 30 points (13 goals, 17 assists) has really stepped up in the absence of forward and captain Henrik Zetterberg, whose NHL career is likely over because of a back injury.

Goalie Jimmy Howard has kept them in a lot of games with a .923 save percentage and rookie defenseman Dennis Cholowski has performed better than expectations offensively and defensively. If they can clean up some parts of their game, the Red Wings could challenge for a Stanley Cup Playoff spot.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

The Vancouver Canucks (14-16-4) are 3-0-1 in their past four games after going 1-10-2 in their previous 13 games. Rookie center Elias Pettersson had a five-point game (one goal, four assists), his second this season, in a 6-1 win at the St. Louis Blues on Sunday. Forward Brock Boeser had a hat trick in that game. The Canucks have defeated the Predators, Blues and Columbus Blue Jackets in this stretch and lost in overtime at the Predators, so they've played well against good opponents.
Philadelphia Flyers center Claude Giroux is well ahead of a point-per-game pace with 38 points (11 goals, 27 assists) in 29 games after finishing last season second in the NHL with 102 points (34 goals, 68 assists). He is flying under the radar a bit because the Flyers (12-13-4) are struggling, but keep an eye on him.