Just 48 hours after a strong effort in Manhattan, the Calgary Flames (5-3-0, 10 points) head to another tough building to tangle with an Original Six opponent. This time, the Flames are tangling with the Montreal Canadiens (4-1-2, 10 points), a team that has thus far out-paced the hockey world’s meager expectations for them.
The action starts at 5:30 p.m. MT on Sportsnet Flames and Sportsnet 960 The Fan.

The Flames

Projected lines, via Daily Faceoff:
Gaudreau – Monahan – Lindholm
Tkachuk – Backlund – Frolik
Bennett – Ryan – Neal
Hathaway – Jankowski – Dube
Giordano – Brodie
Hanifin – Andersson
Valimaki – Stone
After a strong start in New York, David Rittich starts for the Flames. He’s backed up by Mike Smith, who’ll presumably get the two tough starts in Calgary later this week. The extras are Dalton Prout, Anthony Peluso and Austin Czarnik.
All indications are that TJ Brodie is back with Mark Giordano after getting shuffled down to the second pairing on Sunday during a rather rough first period against the Rangers. Rasmus Andersson had a fantastic game, including a clean open-ice hit that directly led to the Flames’ fourth goal.
The Flames need to tighten up a bit defensively, as they gave up 45 shots on Sunday and were out-chanced by the Rangers by a 45-19 margin. Especially with the Penguins and Capitals coming to the Saddledome later this week, the Flames will need to be a lot less leaky than they have been.

The Canadiens

Projected lines, via Daily Faceoff:
Tatar – Danault – Gallagher
Drouin – Domi – Lehkonen
Byron – Kotkaniemi – Armia
Deslauriers – Peca – Shaw
Mete – Petry
Reilly – Juulsen
Ouellet – Benn
Carey Price starts for Les Habitants, backed up by Antti Niemi. Karl Alzner, Nikita Scherbak and Charles Hudon the healthy extras.
The Habs have lost just once in regulation – a 3-0 loss to the L.A. Kings – but otherwise have managed to stick around in basically every game they’ve played. For a team that was widely dismissed by the hockey media prior to the season, it’s pretty encouraging to see this group as determined to prove themselves as they have been.
As with the Rangers on Sunday, these guys could be a difficult test for the Flames.

The Numbers

CGY
MTL
Wins
5
4
Points
10
10
Corsi Close
54.9%
54.3%
Power Play
18.2%
17.2%
Penalty Kill
79.3%
72.7%

Injury Report

The Flames are missing D Travis Hamonic (facial fracture), who’s been cleared for contact.
The Canadiens are without D Shea Weber (knee), D David Schlemko (knee) and F Tomas Plekanec (back).

History Lesson

This is the first of two games between these teams in 2018-19. The Canadiens will visit Calgary in mid-November to complete the season series.

Know Thy Enemy

Your Canadiens Twitter follows for tonight: