Calgary Flames Game Day 59: A visit from the Kings (7pm MT)

After a pretty impressive victory on Saturday night, the Calgary Flames (28-25-5, 61 points) return home looking to keep their winning streak rolling. Their opponent on Tuesday evening is another divisional foe, the Los Angeles Kings (29-18-10, 68 points), a team that played (and lost) in Edmonton on Monday. Can the Flames extend their winning streak to four games?

The broadcast begins at 7 p.m. MT on Sportsnet West and Sportsnet 960 The Fan. The Flames opened as very slight +100 underdogs against the Kings on Betway.

Projected lines courtesy Daily Faceoff:

Huberdeau – Sharangovich – Hunt
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 and Dennis Gilbert. Per head coach Ryan Huska, Andrei Kuzmenko remains a bit under the weather and won’t dress. Jakob Pelletier stays in after returning against Edmonton, while Dryden Hunt stays in after scoring the game-winner on Saturday.

Since the calendar flipped to 2024, the Flames are 13-9-0. That’s not bad, but it could be better. Since the All-Star break they’re 6-3-0, winning two outta three games – which Meat Loaf once declared “ain’t bad.” They enter game action on Tuesday evening five points behind Nashville for the final playoff spot in the West (with a game in hand). They have the Predators, Blues and Wild between them and the cut line.

After a really impressive game against Edmonton, keep an eye on the line of Nazem Kadri, Martin Pospisil and Connor Zary. They combined for four points, including a pair of gorgeous set-ups by Zary on goals by Pospisil and Noah Hanifin.

Projected lines courtesy Daily Faceoff:

We’re projecting Cam Talbot to start in net, backed up by David Rittich (who started in Edmonton). Their extras on Monday were Brandt Clarke and Alex Turcotte, so we’ll see if they make any changes. Adrian Kempe left Monday night’s game and didn’t return, so presumably if he can’t go Turcotte will slot in and the lines will be shuffled a bit.

The Kings have won six of nine under new coach Jim Hiller. That’s good! But they’re 9-10-5 in 2024, which isn’t nearly as good. The Kings have been kind of inconsistent after a really good start, and as a result they’ve slid out of the Pacific’s divisional playoff spots and into the first wild card slot. They need to get some momentum back, or else they’re in danger of a further slide.

Fun fact: this is the third consecutive game where the Flames are playing a team that played the previous evening. They have 10 such games this season, and it’s kind of wacky that three of them fall into the same week.

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

The Kings are without Pheonix Copley, Carl Grundstrom, Viktor Arvidsson and Mikey Anderson.

This is the second of four meetings between the Flames and Kings. Los Angeles won at home back in December. They meet again at the end of March in Calgary and then in mid April in Los Angeles.