After winning three times on their four game road trip, the Calgary Flames (27-13-4, 58 points) are back at home. They kick off a lengthy five game homestand tonight at the Saddledome against the Colorado Avalanche (20-15-8, 48 points), who lost last night in Winnipeg.
The action kicks off at 7:30 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
Hathaway – Ryan – Czarnik
Giordano – Brodie
Hanifin – Hamonic
Prout – Andersson
David Rittich starts for the 23rd time this season for the Flames, backed up by Mike Smith. Oliver Kylington and Andrew Mangiapane are the projected scratches. The team’s reliable shutdown trio (the 3M Line) reunites for a game against arguably the NHL’s top trio, while Kylington sits after sitting for the final 34 minutes of Monday’s game in Chicago. Dalton Prout comes back in, perhaps as an evaluation tool (as the Flames have been oft-rumoured to be looking for left sidedepth on the blueline).
The Flames haven’t played a full 60 minutes in a few games. The good news is they’ve been good enough to win despite that, as they’re a team with a lot of offensive weapons that can tilt a game seemingly at the drop of a hat. But you have to think that Bill Peters wants more from his club, particularly some in-game consistency and better starts.
The Avalanche are going to be an ornery bunch after giving up a touchdown in Winnipeg last evening, so a good start for the Flames might be very important to getting another two points.
The Avalanche
Projected lines, via Daily Faceoff:
Landeskog – MacKinnon – Rantanen
Jost – Kerfoot – Compher
Nieto – Soderberg – Calvert
Andrighetto – Dries – O’Connor
Girard – Johnson
Cole – Barrie
Graves – Nemeth
Since Philipp Grubauer started in Winnipeg, expect Semyon Varlamov to start tonight against the Flames. The healthy scratch last night was Gabriel Bourque, so expect him to rotate back in most likely.
The Avalanche played the Jets last night. Their special teams were found wanting, as they gave up three power play goals and a shorthanded goal to the Jets. Colorado out-shot Winnipeg 41-21, but the special teams performances were the big difference.
Colorado isn’t as terrifying as they once were, but that top line is legit. Expect an interesting chess match as the Flames try to negate them.
The Numbers
| CGY | COL | |
| Wins | 27 | 20 |
| Points | 58 | 48 |
| Corsi Close | 53.2% | 49.5% |
| Power Play | 21.0% | 26.5% |
| Penalty Kill | 78.1% | 75.8% |
Injury Report
The Flames are without Juuso Valimaki and Michael Stone.
The Avalanche are without Mark Barberio, Vladislav Kamenev, Nikita Zadorov and Colin Wilson.
Season Series
Tonight is the third and final game between these teams this season. The Flames beat Colorado 3-2 in overtime back in October and 6-5 back in November.
Know Thy Enemy
Your Avalanche Twitter follows for tonight:
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If the Flames don’t win tonight they might be down to 3rd by end of tomorrow night.
COL looks desperate, Flames better pick it up.
There are three good teams in the Pacific (Calgary, Vegas, San Jose), everyone else is bad to really bad. Well be one of the Top. 3 teams at the end of the year, no need to panic
Heat down 2-1 with 6 minutes left in the 1st. Power play tip in front.
We got this
Devine Quine tickles the twine twice. Heat up 3-2
Quine needs to be in Calgary again soon.
I missed the first period. SOG 11-5 favor of Colorado. Were the Avs really that dominant? If so, good on the Flames to have two goals.
No, they just dove a couple of times to draw soft penalties and get a ton of PP time.
What a terrible looking pp.
Ya, lots of movement not much coordination. OTOH, Avs were aggressive with their sticks and quick to the puck. Flames should shoot more maybe instead of looking for a good setup.
Heat lead after 1. Outshooting Gulls 16-11. Keep it up! GHG ….. GFG!
Sounds like soft goaltending so far in both games.
Baclund back to being Backlund….HIT THE NET!!!
WW
DOUCHE period IMPOSTER…
WW
Time for a shortie
Troll elsewhere!
This period imposter sh!t is getting old now man!
I actually like Hrudey but sometimes he reminds me of Wreck-it Ralph in the way he speaks
Is it the mumbling or they way he turns two words into one?
I think it’s voice tone and pacing – like he’s searching for words
Hot apple turnovers, free at the dome tonight. Brutal!
Handmade by Monahan
Not his best game
Good news is it’s a tied game, bad news is it looks like we are skating in quicksand. Power play save us!
Avalanche pushing hard, because they know who will win the game if it comes down to the 3rd period.
Avs are not too shabby in the 3rd themselves, trailing only the Flames for 3rd period goals.
Lindholms shot is deadly.
Elias Lindholm!
Zeb
PP goal!!
Thank you Lindholm
I know it’s only Eklund……but…..allegedly the Flames have made a good offer on Mats Zuccarello. Might be just Eklund click bait but what’s the consensus and who would the Flames give up?
A 3rd
What’s so great about Zucc?
16 goal scorer.
I hope we don’t give anything good up.
Neal maybe…..
WW
I’ve never been over impressed, he’s 31 years old and his cap is $4.5 MM so he’s not cheap either. Hopefully not a young guy if it does go through.
Thanks tips….that was only brought up on here 4 hous ago.
Huge PPG… needed that. Do we really only have 9 shots on goal?
Prout looks out of place, I don’t blame him, practicing with the same team and not seeing game action would throw anyone off.
Have to think that as a professional and practicing with the team, he’d wouldn’t look out of place.
And the real Gillies shows up. 2 goals allowed, including another shortie, and the Heat down 4-3.
Gillies playing like he wants a trade
He’s turned into a train wreck. Flames need to find a qualified goaltender coach to resurrect Gillies’ career.
Anyone think that if Gillies had a legitimate defense in front of him he would be playing better. It’s weird how he actually played good in the nhl last year. No goaltender is looking good in Stockton….cant be the defense sucks ehhh?
I think we are lucky to winning honestly, our team is so good we can skill ourselves to W’s! Look for us to be much better in the third and wrap this game up! GFG ?
Quine with a Hattie! Tied at 4
Throws his hat off!
How do you fit a hat on that anyway?
There are a couple of things that have become evident.
The first is that someone had a heart to heart with Czarnik and to his credit he listened. It is a little disappointing that he does not seem to have found his scoring touch but he is battling for the puck and working hard. It is a credit to the guy because he has changed his approach to the game and is starting to look like a hockey player. He is being rewarded with ice time, it would be nice to see him get a few points as well.
Hanifin is really bad in the defensive zone. Not only does he play weak against the boards he also makes some extremely weak clearing attempts.
Anderson is for real and maybe a future first pairing defenseman.
Note to BT, stay away from Varlamov in the offseason!
Conventional wisdom indicates that one of the reasons the Flames are a better third period team is elevation. That theory will get a test tonight.
True,but Denver is even higher.
“Shot wide of the net by Backlund”………again and again and again.
WW
He even missed the net on the goal he scored … no?
Hey period dude. Are you going to be here all year?
Heat tied at 4 after 2nd. N3ed another solid 20 minutes. GHG and GFG!