The Flames are a road team and continued to show their wares across the league visiting the Eastern seaboard in the most recent trip. Although Calgary won 4 of 6, what was even better was how they kept up with the league’s best. There were mental break downs in their losses, but for the most part the team skated with the likes of Nashville and Boston.

last night’s game was a solid way to cap off their road-trip with a win in Nashville. THat’s something opposing teams have had a hard time doing. Of note, special teams finally contributed to a win. The PP lost the game in Boston, and won it in Nashville. The special teams also were solid last night.

Of note, secondary scoring is picking up the pace as the top line falls silent yet again. I shouldn’t say silent. Gaudreau continues to amass points, but streaky Ferland and boring Monahan are invisible as of late.

The real story came at the tail end of the trip when Mike Smith went down with a groin injury.

In his place, David Rittich. The backup got his first major test of the year stringing together back to back starts. He was unlucky in Boston as the team left him out to dry. Then in Nashville he played another solid game but left himself out to dry on a bad third period goal that drew the Predators within one. Then with the dying seconds left, Nashville pressed, but Rittich shut the door. You have the sense if Rittich didn’t do something heroic to make up for his mistake, it would’ve been a blow to his confidence and maybe opened the door for Gillies to make a start before Smith returns.

But he didn’t. And Rittich now has shown he is giving the Flames’ options with his solid play. The team can beat good opponents with him in net.