Flames Game Day 14: Back home to face the Jets (8pm MT, CBC/SN/City/960)

After a three game road trip where they played well but lost all of their games, the Calgary Flames (5-6-2, 12 points) are back at the Saddledome on Saturday night to host the Winnipeg Jets (8-3-1, 17 points). The Flames have faced a lot of good teams to start the season, and it’s not getting any easier on Saturday night.

The battle begins at 8 p.m. MT on CBC, City TV, Sportsnet’s national feed and Sportsnet 960 The Fan! (It’s expected to be the return of Rick Ball to play-by-play!)

Projected lines courtesy Daily Faceoff:

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

Hanifin – Andersson
Zadorov – Weegar
Gilbert – DeSimone

Jacob Markstrom was in the starter’s net at Saturday’s morning skate (via Pat Steinberg), so he likely starts with Dan Vladar as his backup. Chris Tanev skated on the “fourth pairing” with Connor Mackey, so neither likely play, while Jonathan Huberdeau didn’t skate (and so also likely doesn’t play).

The fundamentals of the Flames’ game lately have been quite good. They’re not a bad team, but they’re a team that finds a way to lose. Often it’s via not getting a big save to cover up for a momentary defensive lapse. Or sometimes it’s firing a great scoring chance wide of the net, or right into the goalie’s pads or chest. Either way, the Flames desperately need somebody, anybody, to be a positive difference-maker in order to end this streak.

Projected lines courtesy Daily Faceoff:

Connor Hellebuyck is the expected starter in net, backed up by David Rittich. The projected extra skaters are Dominic Toninato, Mikey Eyssimont and Kyle Capobianco.

The Jets are almost the Bizarro Flames so far this season, in the sense that perhaps they’ve been on their heels in many of their games – their possession stats are so-so – but they’re a group that has simply found ways to win when they’ve needed to. They’ve managed to play smart when it counts and eke out wins in close games.

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

The Jets are without Logan Stanley, Morgan Barron and Nikolaj Ehlers.

This is the first of three meetings between these teams this season. The Jets won two of their three games against each other last season. All three games were decided by a two goal margin.

Here are your recommended follows from Jets Twitter: