Calgary Flames Game Day 78: Heading to Hollywood to face the Kings (8:30pm MT)

On Tuesday night, the Calgary Flames (35-37-5, 75 points) began their final significant road trip of the season on the right note with an overtime with in San Jose. They face a stiffer test on Thursday when they head to Southern California to visit the Los Angeles Kings (41-26-11, 93 points), who are playoff-bound and likely looking for a measure of revenge after suffering a loss in Calgary last week.

The broadcast begins at 8:30 p.m. MT on Sportsnet West and Sportsnet 960 The Fan. The Flames opened as +130 underdogs against the Kings on Betway.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

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

Weegar – Miromanov
Okhotiuk – Andersson
Solovyov – Pachal

We’re projecting Jacob Markstrom to start in net, backed up by Dustin Wolf. (It’s a back-to-back, so we project Wolf to play in Anaheim.) It sounds like we won’t see Joel Hanley, Oliver Kylington or Blake Coleman in the game, and we’re projecting Dennis Gilbert and Dryden Hunt as the healthy extras.

The Flames had a flat first period against San Jose, and some turnovers and tough defensive zone play had them down two goals early in the second period. But they’re still a team capable of managing the puck well, imposing their structure on a game, and gradually grinding a team down. Despite their slow start, that’s what they did against the Sharks and it got them a victory.

Keep an eye on the power play. It’s been red-hot lately and improved from around 14% to 17.5% of the course of just the past few weeks. If they can keep this game close at even strength and manage to get something out of their power plays, they may have a chance to win the season series with the Kings.

Projected lines courtesy Daily Faceoff:

Anderson – Doughty
Gavrikov – Roy
Englund – Spence

We’re projecting Cam Talbot to start in net, backed up by David Rittich. Their projected healthy extras are Arthur Kaliyev and Jacob Moverare.

The Kings can clinch a playoff berth tonight with a win. They’ve been up and down lately. Their loss to Anaheim on Tuesday snapped a three game winning streak, which itself followed on the heels of a three game losing streak (which included their loss to the Flames). The Kings are a talented team that plays with pace, but they’ve had some bad habits and sloppiness creep into the game of late. They’re hoping to tidy things up as the post-season looms.

The Flames are without Dillon Dube, Dan Vladar, Joel Hanley and Oliver Kylington.

The Kings are without Pheonix Copley, Carl Grundstrom and Alex Turcotte.

This is the fourth and final meeting between these teams in 2023-24. The Flames are up 2-1 in the series, and the home team has won every game between these clubs so far this season.