Calgary Flames Game Day 43: A Saturday night in Vegas (8pm MT)

On Thursday, the Calgary Flames (19-18-5, 43 points) visited Mullett Arena in scenic Tempe, Arizona. And the Flames did a number on the Coyotes in front of their fathers and mentors (as part of a team trip). The Flames will attempt to close out their trip in style, but they’ll face a challenging foe in the form of the Vegas Golden Knights (24-13-5, 53 points). The Flames have only won once before at T-Mobile Arena, where the house always wins. Can the Flames buck that trend?

The broadcast begins at 8 p.m. MT on CBC, City TV, Sportsnet’s national feed and Sportsnet 960 The Fan. The Flames opened as +125 underdogs against the Golden Knights on Betway.

Projected lines courtesy Daily Faceoff:

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

Hanifin – Tanev
Andersson – Weegar
Oesterle – DeSimone

We’re projecting Jacob Markstrom to start in net, backed up by Dan Vladar. Projected extras look to be Walker Duehr, Yan Kuznetsov and Dennis Gilbert. Gilbert’s skating again as he works through the concussion protocol, but he likely won’t play against Vegas.

Since Dec. 31 – when Ryan Huska wore sweater vests for a few games – the Flames have gone 5-2-0. Their secret? Scoring more goals than the other team does! They’ve gotten pretty good goaltending all season, and when they can give their goalies some run support, things tend to go well for them. They’ve scored six goals in back-to-back outings, but they’ve also allowed three goals (or more) in five of their last seven. They need to be better defensively, but they’ve managed to out-score their mistakes lately.

This is the Flames’ 11th visit to T-Mobile Arena. On one hand, they’re 1-7-2 in their 10 prior visits. On the other hand, they’ve earned points in each of their last three visits – including their first-ever win last March. We’ll see if they can double their win total in Vegas.

Projected lines courtesy Daily Faceoff:

Barbashev – Roy – Marchessault
Dorofeyev – Stephenson – Stone
Cotter – Howden – Amadio
Rondbjerg – Froese – Kolesar

Martinez – Pietrangelo
Hague – Whitecloud
McNabb – Korczak

We’re projecting Logan Thompson to start, backed up by Isaiah Saville. The expected extra skater is Brayden Pachal. The Golden Knights called up Byron Froese and Saville this morning, and Jiri Patera and Jack Eichel were absent from morning skate. Eichel isn’t expected to play.

It’s been an interesting season for the defending Stanley Cup champions. On one hand, they had a parade and everybody began the season in a great mood. Heck, they’re in second place in the Pacific Division – trailing only Vancouver – and they’re probably going to make the playoffs yet again. But things aren’t all roses and sunshine on the Strip: the Golden Knights are 3-7-0 in their last 10 games, and they’re missing a lot of key players.

Vegas is always a formidable hockey team, but this may be as vulnerable as they get.

The Flames are without Oliver Kylington and Dennis Gilbert.

The Golden Knights are without Robin Lehner, Daniil Miromanov, Shea Theodore, Adin Hill, William Carrier, Ben Hutton, Tobias Bjornfot and William Karlsson. (And potentially without Jack Eichel and/or Jiri Patera.)

This is the third of four games between Calgary and Vegas this season. Each team has won an overtime game on home ice. They’ll finish off their season series in Calgary in mid-March.