FGD 82: The bitter end (8pm MT, SN West)

Tonight at the Scotiabank Saddledome, the Pacific Division winner is going to be playing one last game in the regular season as they tune up for the playoffs. Back in October, many looked at the schedule and went “Oh neat, the Flames will get a tune-up game against a crappy expansion team!” Nope. To cap off a season that’s been defined by underachievement, the Calgary Flames (36-35-10) are merely trying not to drop to .500 as they host the powerhouse Vegas Golden Knights (51-23-7). The Golden Knights are hoping to stay sharp as they prepare for the playoffs to begin at T-Mobile Arena on Wednesday or Thursday night.

The puck drops just after 8 p.m. MT on Sportsnet West and Sportsnet 960 The Fan. (The last-ever Sedin Twins game is over on CBC at the same time.)

We’ve confirmed that the Flames will be doing a pre-game moment of silence in honour of the victims of the Humboldt Broncos bus crash. If you have the means, please consider donating to the GoFundMe set up to help their families out. NationGear is also selling a t-shirt to raise funds for the families, so please consider purchasing one as well.

Projected lines, courtesy of Daily Faceoff:

Jon Gillies starts for the Flames, with Mike Smith as his backup. The projected healthy scratches are Tanner Glass and Chris Stewart. The Flames finish off their season without TJ Brodie, Travis Hamonic, Kris Versteeg, Sean Monahan and Matthew Tkachuk.

It’s all over but the crying, and the Flames try to get a moral victory out of this disaster of a season as they try to finally get a victory over the hottest expansion team in modern sports history. Tanner Glass, Matt Bartkowski and Rasmus Andersson are the only current Flames without goals this season, so perhaps they can get on the board tonight.

The four Flames victories since March 1 have come against Ottawa, Buffalo and Edmonton (twice).

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Marc-Andre Fleury starts for the Golden Knights, backed up by Malcolm Subban. Healthy scratches look to be Brad Hunt and Nate Schmidt. Brandon Pirri’s emergency recall was terminated yesterday, which means that Jonathan Marchessault is likely back in the Golden Knights lineup. Reilly Smith is game-time decision.

Vegas has clinched the division and will play one of the three California teams in the first round, depending on the results of the Dallas/Los Angeles and San Jose/Minnesota games (which both start at 8:30 p.m. MT). There will be a ton of scoreboard watching in the West tonight, which is a weird thing to think about considering that everybody and their dog thought that Vegas would be awful this season. They’re awfully fun, so we were all half-right.

Flames: Not expected back this season are Daniel Pribyl (knee), Marek Hrivik (upper-body), Kris Versteeg (hip), Sean Monahan (various), Matthew Tkachuk (suspected concussion) and TJ Brodie (upper-body).

Vegas: David Clarkson, Mikhail Grabovski and Clayton Stoner are on the injured reserve. Luca Sbisa, Oscar Lindberg, David Perron and Reilly Smith are also hurt to varying degrees.

The Flames have played Vegas three times and have lost three times by a collective 15-5 score. They almost beat them once, but then Michael Frolik forgot how to play defense and the Flames gave up three goals in two minutes to lose.

Here are some Golden Knights accounts to check out:

One last hurrah for the 2017-18 edition of the Flames.