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Calgary Flames Game Day 49: Welcoming Chicago to town (7pm MT, SNW/960)

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Photo credit:David Banks-USA TODAY Sports
Ryan Pike
1 year ago
Be sure to check out NHL betting site Betway for the latest Flames game day odds!
A few days after a win over Columbus, at the time the lowest-ranked team in the NHL standings, the Calgary Flames (23-16-9, 55 points) are back in action against… the new lowest-ranked team in the standings, the Chicago Blackhawks (14-28-4, 32 points). It’s the first half of a back-to-back set that closes out the Flames’ schedule heading into the extended All-Star Break!
The broadcast begins at 7 p.m. MT on Sportsnet West and Sportsnet 960 The Fan!

The Flames

Projected lines courtesy Daily Faceoff:
Dube – Lindholm – Toffoli
Lucic – Kadri – Huberdeau
Mangiapane – Backlund – Coleman
Pelletier – Lewis – Duehr
Hanifin – Andersson
Zadorov – Weegar
Mackey – Stone
We’re projecting Jacob Markstrom to start in net, backed up by Dan Vladar. (It’s the first half of a back-to-back, so presumably Vladar gets the Seattle game on Friday.) The projected extras are Dennis Gilbert and Adam Ruzicka. Brett Ritchie remains on the injury reserve, but Chris Tanev is not, but won’t play on Thursday or Friday. Connor Mackey dresses for the first time since Dec. 18 – he sat as a healthy scratch for the past 16 games.
The Flames have won back-to-back games, and generally they’ve been playing really well. They were full marks in a victory against a Tampa Bay team playing their fourth game in six nights, and then they were good against Columbus aside from a brief lapse that resulted in two power play goals against. If they can keep doing what they’re doing – and stay out of the penalty box – they’re probably going to keep getting favourable results more often than not.

The Blackhawks

Projected lines courtesy Daily Faceoff:
Athanasiou – Domi – Kane
Kurashev – Toews – Raddysh
Dickinson – Lafferty – Philp
Blackwell – Entwhistle – R.Johnson
McCabe – S.Jones
J.Johnson – Murphy
Mitchell – C.Jones
We’re projecting Jaxson Stauber to start, backed up by Petr Mrazek. The projected extras are Filip Roos and Boris Katchouk. Former Flames prospect Luke Philp, who made his NHL debut last time out, likely plays in Calgary against his old parent club. He probably won’t get a tribute video, but hopefully a few fans go “Oh hey, I remember that guy!” when he shows up on the Energy Board.
Chicago is bad this year. Connor Bedard level bad. And yeah, we know, the Flames lost to them earlier this month in Chicago (in overtime). So the Flames will be motivated to prove that a bad team is actually bad.

Unavailable players

The Flames are without Oliver Kylington, Brett Ritchie and Chris Tanev
The Blackhawks are without Jarred Tinordi, Jujhar Khaira, Tyler Johnson and Alex Stalock.

The numbers

FlamesBlackhawks
23Wins14
55 (.573)Points (%)32 (.348)
54.3xGF%40.3
19.7PP%19.3
82.0PK%75.7

Head to head

This is the second of three games between these clubs this season. Chicago won in overtime at home a few weeks back despite getting wildly out-played by the Flames. (Alex Stalock was great.)

Social life

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