There was little chatter on the Flames’ 3-and-a-half hour flight to Dallas and it may have been because chatterbox Craig Conroy wasn’t on board.

   Conroy normally the most positive guy on the team even in the lowest of times. Likely wasn’t in such a good mood learning that he is going to be sidelined for a while due to injury (perhaps an ankle). He joins David Moss (shoulder) and Nigel Dawes (leg) on the sidelines.  Its the most injured forwards have had at one time this season.

   Mikael Backlund is replacing Conroy in the lineup.  The Flames #1 pick from 2007 comes up from Abbotsford on a bit of a scoring hot streak.  He’s on a 3-game point streak with a goal and 3 assists.  He’s also notched points in 4 of the last 5 games with the Heat. Overall the native of Sweden has 10 goals and 22pts in 47 games.  He’ll centre a line with Curtis Glencross and Eric Nystrom.

  The match against the Stars is Backlund’s 2nd NHL encounter. He played last Jan. before moving on to Kelowna where he helped them to the WHL title.

   Given the 7-game losing streak and the Flames lack of scoring confidence with only 9 goals over that time, scoring early against the Stars could be imparative to end the slump.

   The Flames haven’t scored a first period goal in the last 3 games plus 4 of the last 5 contests.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 26th, 2010 at 7:25 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.