The Calgary Flames are on a roll heading into Pittsburgh for a game Thursday against the Penguins.
With a win, the Flames would wrap up an Eastern Conference road trip 5-0-0.
Calgary has collectively outscored Detroit, Washington, the New York Rangers and New Jersey 17-7 on the swing and never trailed in any of those four victories.
In particular, Andrew Mangiapane and Elias Lindholm have been scoring at a prolific rate. Entering Wednesday night’s games, they and Alex Ovechkin shared the NHL’s goal-scoring lead with seven goals each.
Mangiapane has scored at least once in each of the Flames’ five road games this year and notched two markers Tuesday in a 5-3 win at New Jersey.
Not that he’s bragging.
“I’m not sure,” Mangiapane said of the reason for his production, then he deflected. “I’m playing with some good players here … and I’m burying them right now, right? So that’s definitely nice.”
Lindholm and Mangiapane have tied a Flames record for most goals through the first six games of a season, and they are the first set of teammates to score seven or more in the first six games since Penguins stars Mario Lemieux and Kevin Stevens in 1992-93, according to the Calgary Sun.
“It starts with their compete level in the scoring areas — winning battles, making plays and, most importantly, finishing plays in those areas,” Calgary’s Milan Lucic said of his teammates.
Pittsburgh also has some star power, but much of it has been sidelined. The Penguins have played the past two games without Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, Bryan Rust and Jeff Carter because of injuries or COVID-19 protocol.
That could start to change Thursday against Calgary.
It’s possible Crosby, the Penguins’ captain and heartbeat of the club, could make his season debut after recovering from wrist surgery Sept. 8.
Crosby said last week that he still needed to successfully test the wrist in things such as faceoffs and puck battles. He has been doing that this week in practice and separately.
At Penguins practice Wednesday, Crosby skated in his normal spot at top-line center and with the top power play unit.
Pittsburgh has been remarkably resilient despite the aforementioned absences and, at times, others.
The Penguins on Tuesday took their first regulation loss, 5-1 against Tampa Bay, in their sixth game, a few days after manhandling Toronto 7-1.
Pittsburgh has received a scoring boost from up and down its lineup and is averaging four goals a game despite running into a brick wall Tuesday in Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy.
Even in that first regulation loss, the Penguins weren’t exasperated.
“Our team competed hard. We put ourselves in position to win,” Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan said. “We just couldn’t find the back of the net.”
As key players work their way back into the lineup, the Penguins hope to continue to play with an all-hands-on-deck approach.
“We need everybody,” said Pittsburgh winger Jason Zucker, who had the lone goal against Tampa Bay. “I think we’ve shown that the first few games of the season.
“We need to continue that. We need to make sure that every guy is pulling their weight, and more, especially with so many guys out.”
–Field Level Media
