Calgary Flames Game Day 38: A trip to scenic Nashville (6pm MT)

Winners of two in a row, the Calgary Flames (16-16-5, 37 points) are back at the .500 mark once again. They’ll try to get into the positive side of the ledger when they continue a four game road trip against the Nashville Predators (21-16-1, 43 points). Can the Flames keep their string of effective play rolling? Or will they go bust on Broadway?

The broadcast begins at 6 p.m. MT on Sportsnet West and Sportsnet 960 The Fan. The Flames opened as +105 underdogs against the Predators on Betway.

Projected lines courtesy Daily Faceoff:

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

Hanifin – Tanev
Oesterle – Weegar
Gilbert – Andersson

Via Sportsnet’s Pat Steinberg, Dan Vladar starts in net, backed up by Jacob Markstrom. Walker Duehr and Nick DeSimone are the projected extra healthy skaters. We’re not anticipating any changes to their lineup from the previous two games, both wins.

By this point in the season, this is basically when the Flames are. Dating back to Nov. 1, that Dallas game after the Heritage Classic, the Flames have gone 14-10-4 over 28 games. They’ve won half their games. They’ve captured about 57% of their available points. They’re an above average hockey team, but they’re up against it as they try to claw back into the playoff race.

Andrew Mangiapane and Jonathan Huberdeau have been quite good lately, and are finally starting to generate points. Keep an eye on them.

Projected lines courtesy Daily Faceoff:

Forsberg – O’Reilly – Nyquist
Smith – Novak – Evangelista
Sissons – Parssinen – Sherwood
Trenin – McCarron – Tomasino

Josi – Fabbro
Lauzon – Carrier
McDonagh – Schenn

We’re projecting Juuse Saros to start in net, backed up by Kevin Lankinen. The projected extra skaters are Cody Glass and Tyson Barrie.

The Predators are in the top wildcard spot in the Western Conference. They’ve won six of their last 10 games and have gotten some strong performances from folks like Filip Forsberg, Ryan O’Reilly and Roman Josi. The Predators aren’t an elite hockey club, but they’re good and they play a fast, structured brand of hockey.

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

The Predators are healthy.

This is the third and final regular season meeting between these two teams. The Flames won in early November in Calgary, while the Predators won a few weeks later in Nashville.