Calgary Flames Game Day 54: A Monday night in Ottawa (5:30pm MT, SNW/960)

The broadcast begins at 5:30 p.m. MT on Sportsnet West (and the national feed) and Sportsnet 960 The Fan!

Projected lines courtesy Daily Faceoff:

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

Hanifin – Tanev
Zadorov – Weegar
Gilbert – Stone

It was an optional morning skate, so the lineup right now is mostly educated guesswork. We’re projecting Jacob Markstrom to start coming off Saturday’s win, backed up by Dan Vladar. We’re not expecting changes from Saturday, so expect the extras to be Connor Mackey and Adam Ruzicka. Rasmus Andersson likely misses his third consecutive game after being hit by a car in Detroit.

The Flames have played their past four games away from the Saddledome, going 2-1-1 – with wins over Seattle and Buffalo, an overtime loss to the Rangers, and a regulation loss to Detroit. All-in-all, that’s not a bad bit of hockey, and the only frustrating thing for fans (and likely coaches and management) relates to how uneven the Flames have looked in those games. This four game stretch was preceded by a home date where the Flames looked very ordinary against Chicago in a loss. In short: the Flames have shown us flashes of brilliance – that second period against Buffalo was fantastic, as was much of what we saw in Seattle and New York – but they just haven’t put long stretches of that sort of hockey together consistently.

Keep an eye on Jakob Pelletier! He scored a very nice goal in Buffalo to get the Flames’ comeback started, and he’s been really energetic, noticeable (and good) in his past few games.

Projected lines courtesy Daily Faceoff:

Tkachuk – Stützle – Joseph
Debrincat – Greig – Giroux
Motte – Pinto – Batherson
Kelly – Brassard – Watson

We’re projecting Mads Sogaard to start in net, backed up by Kevin Mandolese. Their projected extra is Dylan Gambrell.

The Senators are a weird team this year. When they’re healthy, they almost resemble Buffalo in how they have a really interesting mix of young players who are maturing, and they seem like they could be a good team once everybody grows up a little. That said, they’re never healthy, and they’re missing two goaltenders, a strong blueliner, and one of their best centres.

They’re below their usual strength, but this is still the same fast, scrappy team that gave the Flames fits during the North Division season. Underestimate them at your peril.

The Flames are without Oliver Kylington and Rasmus Andersson.

The Senators are without Cam Talbot, Josh Norris, Jake Sanderson and Anton Forsberg.

This is the first of two meetings between these clubs this season.

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