Calgary Flames Game Day 55: Here come the Red Wings (7pm MT, SNW/960)

The broadcast begins at 7 p.m. MT on Sportsnet West and Sportsnet 960 The Fan!

Projected lines courtesy Daily Faceoff:

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

Hanifin – Andersson
Weegar – Tanev
Zadorov – Stone

We’re projecting Dan Vladar to start in net, backed up by Jacob Markstrom. The projected extras are Dennis Gilbert, Connor Mackey and Adam Ruzicka. Per our pal Pat Steinberg at the rink this morning, Rasmus Andersson is medically cleared and didn’t skate with the extras this morning, which are big signs that suggest he’s returning to action against Detroit. We’ll see what we see at warm-up.

The Flames just finished a five game road trip. They won twice, lost once in regulation, and lost twice in overtime. That’s five points in five games. That’s generally a positive, but the Flames are on the outside of the playoff picture as we speak, so the urgency to get points (and a lot of ’em) is rising and will only continue to rise as the games remaining dwindle.

The Flames have shown flashes of brilliance. They’ve need to be consistently good and minimize costly mistakes if they want to play past April 13.

Projected lines courtesy Daily Faceoff:

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

It’s a back-to-back for Detroit, so we’ll get a better sense of any changes from last game in warm-up. Ville Husso started, backed up by Magnus Hellberg, so potentially the Flames see the backup. Jakub Vrana and Jordan Oesterle were the extras for the Wings in Edmonton.

The Red Wings went into Edmonton and won on Wednesday, winning in a shootout. The Wings are, as the Flames witnessed last week, nowhere near as bad as their reputation suggests. They’re young, they’re fast, and they have a few players that can flat-out score. But playing their second game in as many nights, fatigue may become an issue if the Flames push the pace and make it an issue.

The Flames are without Oliver Kylington.

The Red Wings are without Mark Pysyk, Lucas Raymond and Jake Walman.

This is the second of two games between these teams this season. Detroit beat the Flames at Little Caesars Arena a week ago.

Here are your recommended follows from Red Wings Twitter: