Calgary Flames Game Day 52: Motoring down to Detroit to face the Red Wings (5pm MT, SN1/960)

The broadcast begins at 5 p.m. MT on Sportsnet One and Sportsnet 960 The Fan!

Projected lines courtesy Daily Faceoff:

Dube – Lindholm – Toffoli
Pelletier – Kadri – Huberdeau
Mangiapane – Backlund – Coleman
Lucic – Ruzicka – Lewis

Hanifin – Tanev
Zadorov – Weegar
Gilbert – Stone

Dan Vladar starts in net for the Flames, looking to earn a standings point for the 14th consecutive game he’s appeared in. (If he does that, that sets a franchise record.) He’ll be backed up by Jacob Markstrom. The projected healthy extras are Connor Mackey and Brett Ritchie. Rasmus Andersson is day-to-day after being hit by a car. (Assuming Gilbert plays against Detroit, this will cause him to become waiver eligible after clearing waivers in October.)

The Flames were really good on Monday against a really good Rangers team, but their five-on-five puck management miscues led to turnovers, high quality chances, and goals against. The Flames don’t need to play flawless hockey to be successful, but they just need to find a way to minimize the damage their mistakes cause.

Big question for Thursday evening: can the Flames bottle up that physicality and emotional engagement from New York and bring it into Detroit? They’ll be missing a big piece of their team in the form of Andersson, but can they rally around his absence and find a way to get two big points in the playoff race?

Projected lines courtesy Daily Faceoff:

Bertuzzi – Larkin – Raymond
Rasmussen – Copp – Fabbri
Berggren – Veleno – Perron
Zadina – Suter – Sundqvist

We’re projecting Ville Husso to start in net, backed up by Magnus Hellberg. Their projected extras are Dominik Kubalik, Robert Hägg and Gustav Lindström.

The Red Wings are going to be such a fun team when they grow up. Eight players on their roster are 25 or younger. Heck, five forwards expected to dress for them against the Flames are 23 and under. The Wings have been bad for a few seasons, which has made it easier to accumulate and integrate promising youngsters, but they seem to be embracing the grind and they’ve become a tough out because of the growth of their fresh-faced youngsters.

The best Red Wings nobody’s really talking about? Jonatan Berggren. He recently had an audition, and functionally beat out Adam Erne for a roster spot. He has 18 points in 36 games this season, and is fast, smart, and generally plays good hockey everywhere.

The Flames are without Oliver Kylington and Rasmus Andersson.

The Red Wings are without Mark Pysyk.

This is the first of two games between these teams this season. And by “this season,” we mean over the next week. The season series concludes in Calgary on Feb. 16.

Here are your recommended follows from Red Wings Twitter: