After a short road trip out east, the Calgary Flames (5-4-0, 10 points) are back at home and hoping to get back to form. They face a stiff test tonight in the form of the powerhouse Pittsburgh Penguins (4-1-2, 10 points), who feature Sidney Crosby and are quite good.
The action starts at 7 p.m. MT on Sportsnet West and Sportsnet 960 The Fan.

The Flames

Projected lines, via Daily Faceoff:
Gaudreau – Monahan – Lindholm
Tkachuk – Backlund – Frolik
Bennett – Jankowski – Neal
Czarnik – Dube – Hathaway
Giordano – Andersson
Hanifin – Hamonic
Brodie – Stone
Mike Smith gets the start after sitting for a couple games. He’s backed up by David Rittich. The extras are Dalton Prout, Juuso Valimaki and Derek Ryan. (That’ll teach us for writing so confidently about Valimaki hitting 10 games tonight…)
What can we say about the Flames these days? They need to be better defensively. And on both sides of special teams. And generally in all three zones. They were out-played in both games of their road trips and propped up by Rittich’s netminding and a few timely goals. Their next three games are Pittsburgh, Washington and Toronto – hoping their goaltending will hold them in games just won’t cut it.

The Penguins

Projected lines, via Daily Faceoff:
Guentzel – Crosby – Rust
Hagelin – Malkin – Kessel
Simon – Brassard – Hornqvist
Grant – Cullen – Sheahan
Dumoulin – Letang
Maatta – Oleksiak
Riikola – Johnson
Matt Murray starts for Pittsburgh, backed up by Casey DeSmith. The scratches are Chad Ruhwedel and Daniel Sprong.
The Penguins were part of a fantastic hockey game on Tuesday night in Edmonton, culminating with a dramatic overtime victory over the Oilers. Needless to say: Crosby is still the best player in the NHL and can be a difference-maker on any given evening.

The Numbers

CGY
PIT
Wins
5
4
Points
10
10
Corsi Close
54.1%
48.5%
Power Play
15.8%
27.8%
Penalty Kill
76.5%
84.2%

Injury Report

The Flames are healthy, as D Travis Hamonic has been activated from the IR.
The Penguins are without D Justin Schultz (broken leg).

History Lesson

This is the first of two games between these teams in 2018-19. The Flames head to Pittsburgh to finish the season series in February.

Know Thy Enemy

Your Penguins Twitter follows for tonight: