Calgary Flames Game Day 51: A visit to scenic Newark, New Jersey (5pm MT)

Two days after beating one of the NHL’s top teams, the Calgary Flames (23-22-5, 51 points) will try to keep their winning ways going, this time in Newark against the New Jersey Devils (25-20-3, 53 points). The Devils are five points out of a playoff spot and, like, the Flames, are trying to reel some teams in.

The broadcast begins at 5 p.m. MT on Sportsnet West and Sportsnet 960 The Fan. The Flames opened as +120 underdogs against the Devils on Betway.

Projected lines courtesy Daily Faceoff:

Huberdeau – Sharangovich – Kuzmenko
Zary – Kadri – Pospisil
Mangiapane – Backlund – Coleman
Pelletier – Rooney – Duehr

Hanifin – Tanev
Weegar – Andersson
Kylington – Pachal

We’re projecting Jacob Markstrom to start in net, backed up by Dan Vladar. The projected extras are Jordan Oesterle, Dennis Gilbert and Cole Schwindt. We’re expecting few, if any, changes from the lineup that beat the Bruins on Tuesday night.

The Flames were really good on Tuesday. Yeah, they were playing a Bruins team that seemed at times to mentally still be on the beach. But the Bruins, even at partial strength, can still beat a lot of teams. The Flames had all their lines going, played a fast, structured game, and didn’t succumb to the opportunities to hand the reins of the game back to the Bruins. Heck, losing a forward for the final 44 minutes of the game didn’t really disrupt the Flames’ mojo all that much.

Tuesday was arguably the template for what the Flames need to look like to have success. Let’s see if they can do it again.

Projected lines courtesy Daily Faceoff:

We’re projecting Vitek Vanecek to start in net, backed up by Nico Daws. Jack Hughes returns to action after an injury absence, as does Tyler Toffoli due to a late illness scratch on Tuesday. As a result, their extras are expected to be Nick DeSimone, Max Willman and Chris Tierney.

The Devils are still missing a lot of key pieces right now – and have been off and on basically all season – but they’re hanging around in the East’s playoff race. The challenge for them is they really need to go on a run to climb over the playoff cutline, and they’re good enough to stick around in most games, but perhaps not good enough to steal enough of those types of games.

But hey, they’re still the Devils. They may find a way to surprise us.

The Flames are without Dillon Dube and A.J. Greer.

The Devils are without Dougie Hamilton, Jonas Siegenthaler, Brendan Smith, Michael McLeod and Cal Foote.

This is the second of two meetings between these clubs this season. The Devils were triumphant in Calgary back in December.