Calgary Flames Game Day 72: Closing out a road trip in St. Louis (6pm MT)

The Calgary Flames (33-33-5, 71 points) haven’t been great lately. They also haven’t been particularly bad, but they’ve been just bad enough at key moments to be arriving in Missouri to face the St. Louis Blues (38-30-4, 80 points) on a four game skid. Can the Flames halt their losing streak and deliver a hefty blow to the Blues’ playoff hopes?

The broadcast begins at 6 p.m. MT on Sportsnet West and Sportsnet 960 The Fan. The Flames opened as slight +115 underdogs against the Blues on Betway.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Mangiapane – Backlund – Coleman
Zary – Kadri – Pospisil
Huberdeau – Sharangovich – Kuzmenko
Greer – Rooney – Coronato

Kylington – Andersson
Weegar – Miromanov
Okhotiuk – Pachal

We’re projecting Dustin Wolf to start in net, backed up by Jacob Markstrom. The healthy extras for this game are Dryden Hunt, Walker Duehr, Dennis Gilbert and Joel Hanley… but per our pal Pat Steinberg of Sportsnet, one of Hunt or Duehr will slot in for Andrew Mangiapane and we could see somebody slide in for Oliver Kylington as well.

The Flames haven’t been horrible lately, but they’ve had tough starts and have ended up chasing in games a bunch. They’re a team that needs to play a specific style and pace of game to be competitive, and they’ve had lapses away from the puck – opening up scoring opportunities for their opponent at bad times – and just haven’t been dangerous enough offensively to out-score their mistakes.

The Flames have lost four in a row – against Washington, Vancouver, Buffalo and Chicago – and that streak has pushed them 15 points behind Vegas for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference (with a game in hand). They’re on the verge of mathematical playoff elimination.

Projected lines courtesy Daily Faceoff:

Leddy – Parayko
Krug – Kessel
Perunovich – Faulk

We’re projecting Jordan Binnington to start in net, backed up by Joel Hofer. Extras Tyler Tucker, Nikita Alexandrov, Zach Dean and Samuel Blais.

With 10 games remaining, the Blues are six points behind Vegas for the final playoff spot in the West. It’s desperation time for them, as they need to be three wins better than Vegas from here on out. They have zero margin for error. Right now, they’re the best non-playoff team in the NHL by points percentage. But all that and a couple bucks will get you is a double-double… and the 16th overall draft choice in June’s entry draft.

The Flames are without Dillon Dube and Dan Vladar.

The Blues are without Oskar Sundqvist.

This is the third and final game between the red team and the Blues this season. St. Louis won both of their first two meetings and are gunning for the series sweep.