FGD 10: Blues travellers (6pm MT, SN360)

Photo credit:Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports

6 years ago

Last night, the Calgary Flames (5-4-0) overcame a rough start to rally back and beat Nashville in a shootout. Tonight they’ll try to stay above .500 when they face a very strong St. Louis Blues (6-2-1) club at the Scottrade Center. The Blues are, in a word, good, but the Flames have played quite well in their last two games. Can they keep their momentum going? Let’s find out.

The puck drops at 6 p.m. MT on Sportsnet 960 The Fan and Sportsnet 360.

The Flames

Here are tonight’s projected lines, courtesy of Daily Faceoff:

Gaudreau – Monahan (A) – Ferland
Tkachuk – Backlund – Frolik
Bennett – Jankowski – Lazar
Versteeg – Stajan – Brouwer (A)

Giordano (C) – D.Hamilton
Brodie – Hamonic
Kulak – Stone

Eddie Lack starts for the Flames for the first time this season, with Mike Smith wearing the ball-cap as his backup tonight. Matt Bartkowski, Freddie Hamilton and Tanner Glass will probably be in the press box this evening with the team seemingly going with the same lineup as last night.

It’s a homecoming of sorts for Tkachuk, who grew up in the area. He’s coming off a superb game in Nashville last night and overall has consistently been one of the team’s best players. Also good last night? Sam Bennett, who suddenly found himself on the wing and looked more comfortable than he has been all season. With the Flames on the back end of their back-to-back, expect Glen Gulutzan to lean on his youngest line a bit more tonight than he did in Nashville.

Johnny Gaudreau is seventh in the NHL in league scoring.

The Blues

St. Louis’ projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Steen (A) – Stastny – Sobotka
Schwartz – Schenn – Tarasenko (A)
Paajarvi – Sundqvist – Bennett
Upshall – Brodziak – Thorburn

Edmundson – Pietrangelo (C)
Prosser – Parayko
Dunn – Bortuzzo

Jake Allen gets the start, backed up by Carter Hutton. The extras look to be Carl Gunnarsson and Dmitrij Jaskin. The Blues have been idle since their 3-2 overtime loss on Saturday night against Vegas.

St. Louis has won many, many games. They’re missing a lot of their key players, but they’re a deep enough team that it hasn’t really derailed them. Their special teams units are under-performing so far, but that’s the closest thing you can probably point to as far as a Blues’ weakness.

Injury Report

Flames: Daniel Pribyl (knee) and Jaromir Jagr (lower-body) are on the injured reserve.

St. Louis: Robby Fabbri (knee), Zachary Sanford (shoulder), Patrik Berglund (shoulder) and Jay Bouwmeester (ankle) are on the injured reserve.

When Last We Met

The Flames beat St. Louis in two of their three meetings last season. Their most recent trip to St. Louis in March saw the Flames win 3-2 in overtime.