Calgary Flames Game Day 73: Defending the ‘Dome against the Golden Knights (7pm MT, SNW/960)

Photo credit:© Candice Ward-USA TODAY Sports

1 year ago

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The Calgary Flames (32-25-15, 79 points) have 10 games remaining on their schedule. They’re not in a playoff spot, but they’re not out of it yet. They face arguably the toughest opponent remaining on their schedule on Thursday night in the form of the Vegas Golden Knights (44-21-6, 92 points), the top team in the Pacific Division. At this point, they just need to win games.

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

The Flames

Projected lines courtesy Daily Faceoff:

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

Hanifin – Andersson
Zadorov – Weegar
Gilbert – Stecher

We’re projecting Jacob Markstrom to start for the Flames after backing up in Anaheim. He’s backed up by Dan Vladar. The projected extras are Jakob Pelletier and Adam Ruzicka. Chris Tanev missed the Anaheim game on Tuesday, and per reports from the rink, he didn’t take morning skate.

The Flames were very ordinary against a strong Los Angeles side on Monday, and strong against a very ordinary Anaheim side on Tuesday. They’ve fared well against Vegas this season, and they seem to have found a decent enough mix between their forward lines. But the key to victory will be not to let up, as Vegas is a well-constructed, well-coached team, and they’ll be grumpy about losing 7-2 to the Flames in their last meeting.

The Golden Knights

Projected lines courtesy Daily Faceoff:

Barbashev – Eichel – Marchessault
Smith – Karlsson – Dorofeyev
Roy – Stephenson – Kessel
Howden – Blueger – Amadio

Martinez – Pietrangelo
McNabb – Theodore
Hague – Whitecloud

We’re projecting Logan Thompson to start (for the first time since early February), backed up by Jonathan Quick. Their healthy extras are Ben Hutton and Paul Cotter. Nicolas Roy returns to the lineup from an injury.

On Tuesday, the Flames played the worst possession team in hockey. And they beat them handily. Good work! On Thursday, the Flames play Vegas, an average possession team that is missing a bunch of key players due to many, many injuries. But despite being an average possession team, Vegas boasts a bunch of good finishers, a well-balanced blueline, and a generally deep roster despite their injuries.

They’re a tough out on most nights.

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Unavailable players

The Flames are without Oliver Kylington, Michael Stone and Chris Tanev.

The Golden Knights are without Laurent Brossoit, Robin Lehner, Adin Hill, Nolan Patrick, Mark Stone, Will Carrier and Keegan Kolesar.

The playoff race

The Flames enter Thursday’s games chasing a few teams:

They’re one point ahead of Nashville (for ninth place), but Nashville has three games in hand.
They’re four points behind Winnipeg (for the final wild-card spot).
They’re six points behind Seattle (for the first wild-card spot), but Seattle has two games in hand.

To reach 95 points (and have a reasonable chance at a playoff spot), the Flames need 16 points over the final 10 games – that’s an .800 pace in their remaining games. The Flames’ elimination number is 8.5. Any combination of Flames losses or Winnipeg wins totalling 8.5 eliminates Calgary from playoff contention.

If the season ended today, by virtue of points percentage, the Flames would be drafting 14th overall (before the lottery).

The numbers

Flames		Golden Knights
32	Wins	44
79 (.549)	Points (%)	92 (.662)
55.2	xGF%	50.7
20.1	PP%	21.2
81.6	PK%	79.2

Head to head

This is the regular season finale between these two clubs. The Flames have two regulation wins and an overtime loss in three previous games against Vegas, capturing five of a possible six points.

Social life

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