Worrisome report out of Calgary ahead of home opener

Goaltender Jacob Markstrom was not at practice for the Calgary Flames on Wednesday because of an illness. When asked about his goalie and the likelihood of Markstrom being in between the pipes for the Flames’ season opener against the visiting Colorado Avalanche on Thursday night, head coach Darryl Sutter did not provide a clear update.

“I don’t even have one year of medical school.”

What else did you expect…?

The Flames are looking like strong contenders for 2022-23 after GM Brad Treliving had one of the busiest offseason. During the summer, Markstrom attended the European Player Media Tour in Paris and told NHL.com’s Dan Rosen that he thinks the Flames are better than they were before their off-season changes. He didn’t hide his feelings: according to him, Calgary is better now with Nazem Kadri, Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar than it was with Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk. It sure looks like Markstrom is right: Kadri, Huberdeau, and Weegar combined for 246 points last year; Gaudreau, Tkachuk, and Sean Monahan managed 242.

However, the Flames need to have Markstrom in net to be the best team out there. We will see if they can count on him on Thursday for the first game of the calendar.

In 63 regular-season games in 2021-22, Markstrom posted a 2.22 goals-against average, .922 save percentage and went 37-15-9.