Flames Game Day 11: A trip to Long Island (5pm MT, SN1/960)

The first real road trip of the 2022-23 season begins on Monday night for the Calgary Flames (5-4-1, 11 points), as they begin a busy week where they play four games over six days in four different states/provinces. First up? The New York Islanders (7-5-0, 14 points), who host the Flames at UBS Arena! It’s the first of three road games the Flames play over four nights before returning home for a Saturday home game.

The festivities begin at 5 p.m. MT on Sportsnet One and Sportsnet 960 The Fan!

Projected lines courtesy Daily Faceoff:

Huberdeau – Lindholm – Toffoli
Dube – Kadri – Mangiapane
Lewis – Backlund – Coleman
Lucic – Rooney – Ritchie

Hanifin – Andersson
Zadorov – Weegar
Mackey – DeSimone

Jacob Markstrom starts for the Flames, backed up by Dan Vladar. The expected extras are Dennis Gilbert and Adam Ruzicka. Per Postmedia’s Wes Gilbertson, Chris Tanev is on the trip but isn’t expected to play on Monday. Nick DeSimone makes his NHL debut tonight, two weeks shy of his 28th birthday. He’s spent 274 games in the AHL, mostly in the Sharks and Flames systems, since departing from Union College in 2017.

The Flames have lost four games in a row, but only really their game against Nashville was an absolute clunker. The Flames have found ways to lose lately, with mistakes piling up against Edmonton and Seattle and costing them third period leads, and bad starts against Nashville and New Jersey. Simply put: the Flames need to find ways to put together consistent, effective 60 minute hockey games. We know they have the talent to do so.

This game falls one month past the 50th anniversary of the first meeting between these teams in 1972 (and the first NHL game for either franchise): the Flames beat the Islanders 3-2 at Nassau Coliseum. We’ll see if history repeats itself on Monday night.

Projected lines courtesy Daily Faceoff:

Bailey – Barzal – Wahlstrom
Lee – Nelson – Beauvillier
Parise – Pageau – Palmieri
Martin – Cizikas – Clutterbuck

Pelech – Pulock
Romanov – Dobson
Aho – Mayfield

Ilya Sorokin is expected to start for the Islanders, backed up by Semyon Varlamov. The projected extras are Ross Johnston and Robin Salo.

The Islanders have been streaky this season, mostly in good ways. Saturday’s shutout loss to Detroit snapped a five game winning streak for the Isles, but that was preceded by a three game losing streak. They’ve been a really solid team this season so far, and their combination of size, speed and skill throughout their lineup should provide a unique challenge for the Flames.

The Flames are without Oliver Kylington, Chris Tanev and Michael Stone.

The Islanders are without Matt Martin.

This is the first of two games between these teams this season. The Flames won both games against the Islanders by identical 5-2 scores.

Here are your recommended follows from Islanders Twitter: