FGD 18: On the road again (5:30pm MT, SN West)

After seven games and roughly two and a half weeks at home, the Calgary Flames (10-7-0) have packed their bags (and their sweet white jerseys) and hit the road for a six game road trek across America. Their journey begins in the shiny new Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, where they face the Red Wings (8-8-2) for the second time in roughly a week. The Flames are without starting netminder Mike Smith, at least for now, but they’re probably hoping to continue their strong play with the puck that saw them win five of their last seven games at home.

The puck drops at 5:30 p.m. MT on Sportsnet 960 The Fan and Sportsnet West.

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

With Mike Smith temporarily unavailable, Eddie Lack makes his second start of the season. He’s 1-1-0 with a 3.75 goals against average and a .857 save percentage in six periods of work. Jon Gillies will be his backup. Matt Bartkowski, Freddie Hamilton and Matt Stajan are the healthy scratches.

The Flames have allowed power play goals in three consecutive games. They’ve won two of them, but it’s not a great path to success. Head coach Glen Gulutzan has remained fairly critical of his team’s play while a man down, and he’ll probably stay critical until they start getting key kills at key times. (Or they could, y’know, take fewer penalties.)

Johnny Gaudreau? He’s pretty good. He has points in 14 of 17 games this season and sits near the top of the NHL’s scoring leaders list with 24 points in 17 games. He has points in seven consecutive games, one of the longest streaks in the NHL this season.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Given that Petr Mrazek started in Calgary and was decidedly not good, it sounds like Jimmy Howard gets his turn in net against the Flames. He’s 6-5-1 with a 2.35 goals against average and a .930 save percentage. Luke Witkowski looks to be the  lone healthy scratch.

The Red Wings have been idle since Saturday and have lost two in a row. They’re not an awful team by any stretch, but they’ve been prone to inconsistency and hit by some pretty scary goaltending at times (granted, from Mrazek).

Flames: Daniel Pribyl (knee) is on the injured reserve.

Detroit: Johan Franzen (concussion) and Tyler Bertuzzi (wrist) are on the injured reserve. Dan Dekeyser (ankle) and Martin Frk (lower-body) are out for tonight but still on the active roster.

The Flames beat Detroit by a 6-3 score back in Calgary last week. Johnny Gaudreau scored twice, with Mark Jankowski, Micheal Ferland, Matthew Tkachuk and Jaromir Jagr adding goals of their own.

Here are some Red Wings accounts for your Twitter enjoyment:

The Flames have been a pretty good road team and they’re coming off a pretty strong homestand. A win to kick off one of their two longest road trips this season would go a long way towards continuing the momentum they built up on Saddledome ice.

Let Panago Pizza’s new #RoadToTheCup Hockey Combo fuel the game. Order one tonight.