Game Day | Flames @ Panthers – 28.11.25
Welcome to Fort Lauderdale and to another Calgary Flames game day. And here to get you set for game three of a five-game 11-day road trip, a matinea matchup versus the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers. I’m Derek Wills alongside Megan Mickelson. Well, Wednesday night was a tough night for the Flames in Tampa. They fell by a final score of 5-1 to the Lightning. Especially tough for their franchise goalender Dustin Wolf, who gave up three goals and four shots and got pulled before the six-minute mark. Devin Culie came in and finished that game. But Mick, goending has not been a problem for the Flames this season. It’s been a strength, not a weakness. And it feels like regardless of which guy they go with today, they’re going to have a good chance to win this hockey game. Yeah, both goalenders have been absolutely outstanding all season long. And you know, for Dustin Wolf, uh the amount of work that he’s had as well. He’s just been an absolute workhorse for this team, starting 20 uh of the games they’ve played over the course of the season. He’s faced the second most shots in the NHL, has made the second most saves. Uh, so there’s no doubt that he’s been really strong for this team. And then you look at Devin Culie, his numbers don’t lie. Second in save percentage, second in slot save percentage, second in inner slot save percentage. So, uh, doing a great job of coming in and especially those high danger chances areas, uh, making key saves. So, we’re not sure who is going to start. Uh, but wouldn’t be surprised if it were Devin Culie considering the amount of work that Dustin Wolf has taken on over the course of the season. And if the Flames do go with Devin Culie in this game against the Panthers today, he’ll go into it leading the National Hockey League in Bulls against average and tied for the league lead in safe percentage. Obviously, the Flames are going to have to get good goalending versus the Panthers today. And I’m wondering if they can maybe take advantage of a Florida Panthers team that is really injury ruled right now like a lot of teams in the National Hockey League with this condensed schedule, but without seven players including arguably their two top players in Sasha Barov and Matthew Kachchuck. So, how do the Flames take advantage of that with the Panthers today? Yeah, the Panthers are still a bit of a wagon. You look at their roster, you have Brad Marshon, Sam Reinhardt, Sam Bennett, Carter Verhagi on the back end, Gustav Forsling, Aaron Akblad, uh, and 10 players on that Florida Panthers team with at least 10 points. So, they’re getting a lot of uh, production from top to bottom in terms of guys stepping up uh, and producing with the injuries that they have as you mentioned. So, uh, a team that they play the right way, they compete really hard, and they’re going to play a desperate hockey game because, as Paul Maurice said yesterday after their practice, uh, it’s a time of the season where, uh, they’re a team they’re trying to fight for their playoff lives and get themselves into a better spot than they are right now. What are the three keys to victory today? Well, the first one is to start on time. You look at the game against the Tampa Bay Lightning, they gave up four goals in that first period. uh the previous six games they gave up two goals combined in the first period. So uh you see that over the course of that stretch of games where they were winning had a lot of success a strong start was really important. So starting on time. Uh the second one and something Kale Mlan mentioned to me yesterday was making sure that they are really competitive on at and around pucks. The Florida Panthers are a team they compete really really hard. It was something that was missing from their game in Tampa Bay. they’re going to need to make sure uh that that’s an area that is on point for sure. It’s just that battle compete level. And then the last one, uh you look at the Florida Panthers, they’ve given up the least amount of high danger chances five on five over the course of the season. So for the Flames to generate some offense, which is the third key, find ways to create offense. You’re going to have to find ways to get to the middle of the ice to those high danger areas. Uh fight for those secondary chances so you can pick up pucks, put them away, but also get the power play back up and running. And the two teams split last year’s twoame season series. Dustin Wolf with a three nothing shutout win. Sergey Babski with a three nothing shutout win. So two good games last year. We’re expecting another one here tonight. You can listen to the game on Sportsnet 960 the Fan. You can watch it on Sportsnet West at 2 p.m. Enjoy the game everybody. [Music]
Meaghan and Derek get you set for today’s matinee in Florida
1 comment
Its time to give wolf a break. Kool is playing well.