Calgary Flames Game Day 32: The Fancy Cats visit Calgary (7:30pm MT)

After beating Tampa Bay on Saturday, the Calgary Flames (12-14-5, 29 points) seek to finish off their brief homestand with a sweep of the state of Florida when they host the Florida Panthers (18-10-2, 38 points) on Monday night. In case you may have forgotten, there are a few former Flames players on the Panthers roster, so this could be an oddly emotionally-charged game for both teams.

The broadcast begins at 7:30 p.m. MT on Sportsnet One and Sportsnet 960 The Fan. The Flames are (slight) +110 underdogs against the Panthers on Betway.

Projected lines courtesy Daily Faceoff:

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

Weegar – Andersson
Hanifin – Tanev
Gilbert – DeSimone

We’re projecting Jacob Markstrom to start in goal (based on reports from morning skate), returning from a seven-game absence due to injury, backed up by Dan Vladar. The projected extras are Jordan Oesterle and Walker Duehr.

This is the 13th game in the Flames “gauntlet” run, featuring 15 games in rapid-fire progression against a lot of good hockey teams. In the previous 12 games, they’re 5-5-2. Aside from one of their meetings with Minnesota, the Flames have played 11 rock-solid hockey games. They’ve found ways to lose from time to time, but for the most part they’ve played well enough that you can squint and picture a group that could get better results if they had slightly more skill in their lineup.

Yegor Sharangovich has scored goals in five consecutive games. Keep an eye on him, as well as former Panthers Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar.

Projected lines courtesy Daily Faceoff:

R0drigues – Barkov – Reinhart
Verhaeghe – Bennett – Tkachuk
Luostarinen – Stenlund – Cousins
Lomberg – Lorentz – Lockwood

Forsling – Ekblad
Mikkola – Montour
Ekman-Larsson – Kulikov

We’re projecting Anthony Stolarz to start in net, backed up by Sergei Bobrovsky. Their lone healthy extra is Josh Mahura.

The Panthers beat Edmonton by a 5-1 score on Saturday night, snapping a brief two-game losing skid where they were shut out by Seattle and Vancouver. But the Panthers are a team that’s generally found ways to string wins together throughout the season – 18 wins over 30 games says they’ve earned their record and reputation. They’re not the most stout defensive team in the league, but they’re deep, fast and talented.

We’re sure that the trio of former Flames – Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Bennett and Ryan Lomberg – will receive a warm welcome back to Calgary.

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

The Panthers are without Anton Lundell and Jonah Gadjovich.

This is the first of two games between these teams this year. They’ll close out the season series in March in South Florida.