Flames Game Day 45: A visit from the Islanders (8pm MT, SNW/360/City)

The Calgary Flames (25-13-6, 56 points) look to continue their winning ways and complete their first week of the second half of the regular season on a good note on Saturday night on Hockey Night in Canada! Their opponents are the New York Islanders (17-18-6, 40 points), who played last night in Edmonton and lost to the Oilers. The Flames have won five games in a row, while the Islanders have lost four of their past six outings.

This game gets going just after 8 p.m. MT. You can catch the action on Sportsnet’s national feed, 360 and City TV, and Sportsnet 960 The Fan. The game won’t be on the CBC, as that channel is showing Olympics coverage instead.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Gaudreau – Lindholm – Tkachuk
Coleman – Backlund – Mangiapane
Lucic – Ruzicka – Lewis
Dube – Monahan – Ritchie

Hanifin – Andersson
Kylington – Tanev
Zadorov – Gudbranson

@Jacob Markstrom starts for the Flames, backed up by @Daniel Vladar. Calgary’s active extras are @Tyler Pitlick (injured), @Michael Stone and @Brad Richardson. They look to be using the same lineup they’ve used for their past eight games. Markstrom has started every game dating back to Jan. 13, and this will be his 12th start in a row. Eventually, Vladar will need to get a game in to keep Markstrom fresh for the spring.

The Flames have been quite good as of late, with their last flat-out stinker of a game coming back on Jan. 13 against Ottawa. Since then, they’ve managed to be in every game and while they’ve lost a couple, they’ve managed to play consistent 200-foot hockey, get goals when they needed them and get big saves when they needed them, too. They sure could use some scoring from their third and fourth lines, though.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

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

Pelech – Mayfield
Chara – Dobson
Greene – Pulock

@Semyon Varlamov starts for the Islanders, backed up by @Ilya Sorokin. Yesterday’s extras were Sebastian Aho (the Finnish one), @Kieffer Bellows and @Kyle Palmieri. Palmieri just returned from his wife having a child and was held out against Edmonton, but he’s expected to be an option against Calgary.

The Islanders have been a streaky team this season, alternating between wins and losses (and pairs of such results) with a good amount of regularity. Recently they’ve reshuffled their lines and it resulted in a win over Vancouver… and then a loss against Edmonton. Playing their second game in as many nights, and third in four nights, they’ll likely be opting to play a boring, structured game and trying to grind out a point or two. We’ll see if the Flames have the ability and patience to play (and win) that style of game.

The Flames are without Tyler Pitlick.

The Islanders are healthy.

The Flames opened the Islanders’ new home, UBS Arena, with a 5-2 win back in late November.

Your recommended Twitter follows for tonight’s contest: