Calgary Flames Game Day 18: Another trip to the Emerald City (8pm MT)

Two weeks back, the Calgary Flames (6-8-3, 15 points) snapped their losing skid with a win in Seattle. They’ll hope to keep their string of effective play rolling when they face the Seattle Kraken (7-8-4, 18 points) again at Climate Pledge Arena. It’s a divisional game with two points on the line that could be very important in the playoff chase for both teams.

The broadcast begins at 8 p.m. MT on Sportsnet West and One, and Sportsnet 960 The Fan. The Flames are +100 underdogs to beat the Kraken on Betway.

Projected lines courtesy Daily Faceoff:

Sharangovich – Lindholm – Mangiapane
Zary – Kadri – Pospisil
Huberdeau – Backlund – Coleman
Greer – Dube – Duehr

Weegar – Andersson
Hanifin – Tanev
Zadorov – DeSimone

Per Sportsnet’s Eric Francis, Dan Vladar starts, backed up by Jacob Markstrom. The projected extras are Dennis Gilbert and Adam Ruzicka.

Since the Flames beat Seattle back on Nov. 4, they’ve played six games and posted a 3-1-2 record. They haven’t been blow-away good necessarily, but aside from a poor third period against Ottawa they’ve been pretty effective in all three zones and their even strength play has been strong. What hasn’t been strong is their power play, which flat-out needs to be better if the Flames want to have an easier time winning the many, many close games they’re destined to be in for the rest of the season.

Projected lines courtesy Daily Faceoff:

McCann – Beniers – Eberle
Schwartz – Wennberg – Tanev
Tolvanen – Gourde – Bjorkstrand
Kartye – Bellemare – Yamamoto

Dunn – Larsson
Oleksiak – Borgen
Dumoulin – Schultz

We’re projecting Philipp Grubauer as starter, backed up by Joey Daccord. Their projected extras are Andrew Poturalski and Jaycob Megna.

Since their loss to the Flames, the Kraken have kept rolling along, posting a 3-2-2 record. Their most recent triumph was a Saturday night win over the Vancouver Canucks, who are quite good. The Kraken are arguably the Pacific coast mirror image of the Flames: they might not have oodles of game-breaking stars, but they’re well-coached, pretty deep, and can be a tough out when they’re on their game.

The Flames are without Oliver Kylington, Jakob Pelletier and Kevin Rooney.

The Kraken are without Andre Burakovsky.

This is the second of four meetings between these teams this season. The Flames beat Seattle by a 6-3 score earlier this month. They’ll meet twice more this season in Calgary.