The Flames go for an unprecedented 9 in a row against the visiting Blackhawks tonight. Aiding Calgary in their search for victory will be Chicago's lack of scoring punch which has been exacerbated by their continuing injury woes. Perenially ill forward Eric Daze is, of course, out of the line-up indefinately. Ditto Tuomo Ruutu, the Blackhawk's brightest young forward. No one seems to know when either of these stars will be back on the ice (I personally don't know why Daze even bothers. He should definately hang up his skates. I can't currently recall a more injury prone athlete). Also, I heard Mark Bell, who scored 2 goals against the Oilers recently, has been having some minor injury issues, but will probably play against the Flames tonight.
The Flames, on the other hand, are chugging along nicely. Only Matthew Lomardi and Bryan Marchment remain felled by the injury bug. The rest of the team is playing and skating at peak effeciency. One of the only concerns may be the fact that Kipper leads the league in minutes played and may be getting run down. Of course, he does benefit from the fact that Calgary tends to limit their opponents shots on goal and scoring chances. Im guessing the 1000+ minutes played by Luongo so far have been far more stressful and work-filled than Kiprusoff's, for instance. That being said, it's highly possible that Sauve will get the start tonight against what can be considered a "weaker" foe.
