After a home-and-home pair of games with the Vancouver Canucks, the Calgary Flames (1-1-0, 2 points) are hitting the road in earnest. Tonight they begin a three-game trip through the Central Division against the Nashville Predators (2-0-0, 4 points). Can the Flames keep their momentum going, or will they hit a roadblock in the form of one of the Western Conference’s top teams?
The action starts at 6 p.m. MT on Sportsnet Flames (with Rick Ball and Kelly Hrudey) and Sportsnet 960 The Fan.

The Flames

Projected lines, via Daily Faceoff:
Gaudreau – Monahan – Lindholm
Tkachuk – Backlund – Czarnik
Bennett – Dube – Neal
Frolik – Ryan – Peluso
Giordano – Brodie
Hanifin – Stone
Valimaki – Andersson
Mike Smith makes his third start of the season, backed up by David Rittich – who’ll likely start in St. Louis on Thursday evening. Tonight’s healthy scratches are Dalton Prout, Mark Jankowski and Garnet Hathaway. The bottom six got a bit of a shake-up, with Sam Bennett promoted, Derek Ryan demoted, Dillon Dube moved to center and Mark Jankowski swapped out for Anthony Peluso. (Why Peluso? Well, Zac Rinaldo plays for Nashville…)
The Flames have also made some changes to the second unit of their power play in an effort to make them as formidable as their top group – the top unit has officially scored three times (and a fourth goal was scored three seconds after the penalty expired). The second unit hasn’t scored at all, so now Derek Ryan and TJ Brodie have been swapped out for Noah Hanifin and rookie Dillon Dube.

The Predators

Projected lines, via Daily Faceoff:
Forsberg – Johansen – Arvidsson
Jarnkrok – Turris – Smith
Sissons – Bonino – Hartman
Fiala – Gaudreau – Rinaldo
Josi – Ellis
Ekholm – Subban
Bitetto – Weber
Pekka Rinne starts, backed up by Juuse Saros. The healthy scratches look to be Dan Hamhuis, Miikka Salomaki and Matt Irwin.
After wins in Manhattan and Brooklyn, the Predators finally enjoy their own home-opener tonight. They scored seven goals through their first two games, including a pair of goals from Viktor Arvidsson. The Predators will be hoping to have an easier time than they did on the road, where each of their games were won by a single goal.

The Numbers

CGY
NSH
Wins
1
2
Points
2
4
Corsi Close
58.5%
51.1%
Power Play
23.1%
0.0%
Penalty Kill
71.4%
80.0%

Injury Report

The Flames are missing Travis Hamonic (facial fracture).
The Predators are healthy.

History Lesson

This is the first of three meetings between Calgary and Nashville this season. They’ll meet again in Calgary on Oct. 19.

Know Thy Enemy

Your Predators Twitter follows for tonight: