FGD 37: One more against the Jets (8pm MT, SN West)

For the third time in four days, the Calgary Flames (16-17-3, 35 points) host the Winnipeg Jets (21-12-2, 44 points)! Can the Flames find a way to take two of three possible wins from their three game set with the Jets? They really, really need the points.

The action starts at 8 p.m. MT on Sportsnet West and Sportsnet 960 The Fan!

Projected lines, via Daily Faceoff:

Gaudreau – Monahan – Ritchie
Tkachuk – Lindholm – Leivo
Lucic – Ryan – Mangiapane
Nordstrom – Backlund – Bennett

Giordano – Andersson
Hanifin – Tanev
Nesterov – Stone

Jacob Markstrom starts for the Flames, backed up by David Rittich. The healthy extra bodies with the club are Louis Domingue, Alex Petrovic, Buddy Robinson, Zac Rinaldo, Oliver Kylington and Dominik Simon. By all accounts, Dillon Dube and Juuso Valimaki will be healthy scratches again today.

The philosophy behind the shuffled lines appears to be trotting out four lines that can play with pace. We’ll see how it works in practice.

The Flames won a game on Saturday and played pretty well. That’s great! Now they just need to do that another 15 times in their last 20 games in order to punch their ticket to the playoffs… Probably. The Flames face a very hefty uphill battle if they’re going to make the post-season dance.

Projected lines, via Daily Faceoff:

Stastny – Scheifele – Wheeler
Connor – Dubois – Ehlers
Copp – Lowry – Appleton
Perreault – Thompson – Lewis

Morrissey – Poolman
Forbort – Pionk
Stanley – DeMelo

Connor Hellebuyck starts for the Jets, backed up by Laurent Brossoit. The active extras are Jansen Harkins and Sami Niku. The taxi squad is Eric Comrie, Nelson Nogier, Ville Heinola, Joona Luota and Dominic Toninato.

Don’t expect too many substantial changes for the Jets. They tend to trot out the same lineup every game and it usually works pretty well for them. The Jets were victimized to some degree by puck luck on Saturday, as the bounces went against them, but they were also definitively the second-best team on the ice. They’ll be hoping for a bounce-back game.

If you peruse most standings projections, it becomes apparent that 65 points probably gets you into the playoffs. That’s a 32-23-1 record, or thereabouts, or a .580 points percentage.

The Flames have a 16-17-3 record, 35 points, and a .486 points percentage. To hit 65 points, they need 30 points in the remaining 20 games, the equivalent of a .750 points percentage.

The Flames are healthy.

The Jets are without Bryan Little and Nathan Beaulieu.

The Flames have won three of their first seven games with the Jets, capturing seven of a possible 14 points in the process. (One of their four losses was in overtime.)

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