FGD 9: Headed to Hollywood (8pm MT, CBC)

Photo credit:Candice Ward-USA TODAY Sports

4 years ago

On the heels of a victory on Thursday night (and three consecutive good outings), the Calgary Flames (4-3-1, 9 points) head to Hollywood looking for a measure of revenge when they face the Los Angeles Kings (2-5-0, 4 points). The Flames were awful in their first meeting but clawed their way to an overtime point with a strong second half. They’ll be hoping to play 60 good minutes tonight.

The puck drops at 8 p.m. MT on CBC and Sportsnet 960 The Fan.

The Flames

Projected lines, via Daily Faceoff:

Gaudreau – Monahan – Lindholm
Tkachuk – Backlund – Frolik
Lucic – Ryan – Bennett
Rieder – Jankowski- Czarnik

Giordano – Brodie
Hanifin – Hamonic
Kylington – Andersson

David Rittich starts tonight, backed up by Cam Talbot (who will start tomorrow in Anaheim). The healthy scratch will be Michael Stone. Elias Lindholm will play, but Andrew Mangiapane will not.

The Flames have been really solid since their loss to Vegas. They’ve built up their game fairly well and were strong against Detroit for the most part, which is a good sign as they face a Kings team that they looked horrible against early on in Calgary.

The Kings

Projected lines, via Daily Faceoff:

Iafallo – Kopitar – Brown
Carter – Lizotte – Toffoli
Kovalchuk – Kempe – Lewis
Clifford – Amadio – Wagner

Hutton – Doughty
Martinez – Walker
Ryan – Roy

Jonathan Quick likely starts for the Kings, as Jack Campbell faced Buffalo (and lost) on Thursday. The projected extras are Kurtis MacDermid and Nikolai Prokhorkin.

The Kings played pretty well against the Flames a couple weeks back, but they are objectively not a good hockey team this season. Aside from a few good players, they lack depth at every position. They’ll be better in a year – heck, maybe in 40 games – but right now they’re a beatable team and one the Flames absolutely need to get two points against.