Kent Wilson, a blogger from Matchsticks and Gasoline, answered a few Calgary questions to help prepare you for tonight's game:

Q: The Flames appear fired up for this game. Talk about how Brent Sutter was in practice this week and what Stars fans should expect from the Flames tonight.

A: The club was embarrassed by their performance against the Red Wings. Sutter has been fire-and-brimstone in the interim, putting the boots to the players in both practice and the press. I would expect a number of the individual players who were called out specifically to come out particularly hard against the Stars tonight (Jarome Iginla and Curtis Glencross).

Q: Give us a quick scouting report on the Flames so far this season. What has been good? What has been bad?

A: There's been a painfully obvious division between the Flames support players and their "money" players up front. The former has been good to excellent while the latter has been mediocre to poor. Rene Bourque is leading the charge, but guys like Dustin Boyd, Brandon Prust, Eric Nystrom, Craig Conroy, Curtis Glencross and Freddy Sjostrom have been performing as well as or better than can be expected.

Iginla and Jokinen, on the other hand, have been various shades of abysmal. They began the season playing together but it became painfully clear within a few games (as it did last year when the same experiment was tried) that they were ill-matched. Even split up, however, neither of them is doing much in the offensive zone currently and the defensive zone hasn't been a strength either. The team can't have $12M+ worth of forwards struggling nightly so if one or both of them doesn't turn things around in short order, I'd expect a drastic change to occur.

Q: Rene Bourque appears to be an assist machine (10 this season already). What makes him so good on the ice? How has that line looked?

A: Bourque doesn't have sublime hands or vision. What he does have is speed, strength along the boards and tenacity. In fact, Bourque has looked more like Iginla than Iginla has this year with his power moves from the corner and ability to win the puck and get to scoring areas. The ostensible 'second line' with Langkow and Dawes has become the de facto first line for Brent Sutter as he has begun to match them against other team's top players given the struggles of Iginla and Jokinen detailed above.

Q: Calgary is second on the power play in the NHL. Who are the key players that make that unit work?

A: It's mostly been the defensemen and the second unit (Bourque et al.) getting the job done with the man advantage this season. Having guys like Phaneuf, Bouwmeester and Mark Giordano on the point helps direct the attack for sure. Jokinen and Iginla have been okay, but lesser lights compared to Bourque (4 PP points) and Dawes (4 PP points), especially given the fact that Jokinen/Iginla tend to spend more time on the PP.

Q: How has the penalty kill performed this season?

A: Inconsistently. There's been games when the Flames the PK has been so effective the club has outchanced the opposition a man down and others where they've given up multiple shots and goals. Seems to be a crap shoot.

Q: Who are some players Stars fans should keep an eye on tonight?

A: I've mentioned some of the lesser known guys already: Rene Bourque, Dustin Boyd, Curtis Glencross, Mark Giordano. Gio, in particular, is a guy who tends to stand out for people who haven't seen or heard of him before. An undrafted signee who actually led the Flames farm team in scoring one year, Giordano is a mobile, puck moving defenseman who excels at walking the offensive zone blueline with the puck on his stick.

Q: Any injury updates?

A: No significant injuries for Calgary at this time.

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