FGD #13: Visiting Jarome’s New Home (7pm MT, SN West)

After their whirlwind victory on Saturday night over the Edmonton Oilers – their first regulation win of the 2015-16 season – the Calgary Flames tangle with one of the few Western Conference clubs that’s as far-down in the standings as they are tonight when they visit the Colorado Avalanche.

The Flames (3-8-1) have quietly grabbed three points in their last three games – their shootout loss in Ottawa and their last-minute win in Edmonton – but otherwise have lacked momentum. They can try to manufacture some tonight against the Colorado Avalanche (3-7-1), who have lost two in a row and are hopeful to get back on track.

The puck drops just after 7pm MT on Sportsnet Flames and Sportsnet 960 The Fan!

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Karri Ramo starts again. He’s 1-3-0 with a 4.27 goals against average and .868 save percentage. He managed to hold on for the win in Edmonton, giving up only a pair of even-strength goals (and not really getting puck help from his penalty kill). The Flames remain without Jonas Hiller, Lance Bouma and Micheal Ferland, while Ladislav Smid and Derek Grant look to be the healthy extras.

The Flames won on Saturday night. If they win tonight, it’ll be the first time they’ve won two in a row all season long. I think it’s safe to say that they’ve had an October to forget, and they’d love to make November better. It’s not like November could be much worse than October was, to be honest.

The Flames have been pretty decent at even-strength, but they’re getting killed by their special teams. Their power-play has scored just twice in their last seven games (going 2-for-20 in the process). Their penalty kill has allowed six goals in that same span, including two against Edmonton. If they can tighten up their special teams game, they may be able to string some more wins together.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Semyon Varlamov starts. He’s 2-5-1 with a 3.32 goals against average and .891 save percentage.

The Avalanche score just as often as the Flames do – a benefit of having the ageless Jarome Iginla on the roster – but Colorado’s really struggled to prevent the back-breaking “next goal.” They’ve lost a bunch of close games, and could use (a) more timely offense or (b) defense that’s not giving up goals at key moments.

They’re a good team on paper, but they just haven’t coalesced the way team management would’ve hoped. (Sounds familiar, eh?)

First meeting of the season. Last season the Flames won two of their three meetings with Colorado with the home side winning each game. The Flames beat the Avalanche 4-3 (in overtime) on December 4, the Avs beat Calgary 3-2 in Denver on March 14, and the Flames beat them by the same score back in Calgary nine days later.

In 152 previous meetings between Colorado/Quebec and Atlanta/Calgary, the Flames have a 69-56-20-7 record.

Two desperate teams do battle in the Mile High City tonight! The Flames really need to rack up some points and will hopefully do their best not to squander what momentum they accumulated over the weekend. A win tonight gets them two much-needed points and claws them ever-closer to a post-season position…and much-needed respectability.