Flames Game Day 51: A Wild Saturday night (8pm MT, CBC/SNW/City)

It’s a big-time Western Conference clash on a Saturday night! The Calgary Flames (30-16-4, 66 points) host the Minnesota Wild (31-15-3, 67 points) in a clash of two teams right next to each other in the conference standings. Can the Wild return to their winning ways after losing four of their last five? Can the Flames rebound from a really rough outing on Thursday in Vancouver?

The puck drops just after 8 p.m. MT. Catch all the action on CBC, Sportsnet’s national feed and City TV or Sportsnet 960 The Fan!

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

@Johnny Gaudreau – @Elias Lindholm – @Matthew Tkachuk
@Blake Coleman – @Mikael Backlund – @Andrew Mangiapane
@Milan Lucic – @Sean Monahan – @Tyler Toffoli
@Trevor Lewis – @Brad Richardson – @Brett Ritchie

@Noah Hanifin – @Rasmus Andersson
@Oliver Kylington – @Chris Tanev
@Nikita Zadorov – @Erik Gudbranson

@Jacob Markstrom is expected to start for the Flames, backed up by @Daniel Vladar. The Flames’ extras appear to be @Dillon Dube, @Adam Ruzicka and @Brad Richardson. Ritchie returns for his first game since Feb. 12, Richardson for his first game since Jan. 22, which bumps Dube and Ruzicka to the sidelines. It’s the first scratch for Dube this season.

Some facts, pals. The Flames lost 7-1 to Vancouver on Thursday night, giving up three power play goals and a penalty shot goal. Head coach Darryl Sutter dubbed the team’s defense as “borderline awful” and noted that the team wasn’t ready for the physical game against Vancouver. The team’s 10 game winning streak was snapped, and their defensive game was leaky in the last two or three of those wins.

But the Flames have still won nine of 10 games in February, and they have a chance to hit the reset button and atone for their big loss on Thursday with a more composed, structured game against a very good team from Minnesota.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

@Kirill Kaprizov – @Ryan Hartman – @Mats Zuccarello
@Kevin Fiala – @Frederick Gaudreau – @Matthew Boldy
@Marcus Foligno – @Joel Eriksson Ek – @Nick Bjugstad
@Nico Sturm – @Connor Dewar – @Brandon Duhaime

@Alex Goligoski – @Jared Spurgeon
@Jonas Brodin – @Dmitry Kulikov
@Jon Merrill – @Calen Addison

@Cam Talbot is expected to start for the Wild, backed up by @Kaapo Kahkonen. Their projected extras are @Mason Shaw and @Jordie Benn. @Jordan Greenway is expected to miss this game with a minor injury, but he remains on the active roster right now.

The Wild are a pretty good, consistent team, with a lineup that’s a good mix of savvy veterans and pesky youngsters. Kaprizov and Boldy are just fun players to watch, too. They’re going through a cold streak, though, having lost four of their past five outings. They’ve won four times in nine games in February, so they’re hoping to bounce back and bring their results more in line with how they feel they’re playing in general.

The Flames are healthy.

The Wild are without Matt Dumba and Jordan Greenway.

This is the first of three games this season between these two teams. The Flames beat Minnesota 2-1 in their last meeting back in Jan. 2020.

Your recommended Twitter follows for tonight’s contest: