Flames Game Day 60: Hosting the boys from Jersey (8pm MT, SN West/360)

After a couple days without a game, the Calgary Flames (36-16-7, 79 points) return to action with yet another home game. This time, they host the New Jersey Devils (22-33-5, 49 points), who played (and lost) in Vancouver on Tuesday evening. It’s a scheduled win for the Flames, but can the Flames cash in and make it an actual win?

The puck drops just after 8 p.m. MT. Catch all the action on Sportsnet West and 360 or Sportsnet 960 The Fan! (It’s a late one.)

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

@Johnny Gaudreau – @Elias Lindholm – @Matthew Tkachuk
@Blake Coleman – @Mikael Backlund – @Trevor Lewis
@Andrew Mangiapane – @Adam Ruzicka – @Tyler Toffoli
@Milan Lucic – @Sean Monahan – @Dillon Dube

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

We’re expecting @Jacob Markstrom to start, backed up by @Daniel Vladar. Oliver Kylington and Adam Ruzicka are back in, while the extras are @Michael Stone, @Brad Richardson and @Brett Ritchie. In short: the team’s lineup looks to be back to normal after Kylington’s two game absence with a lower body injury.

The Flames were shut out on Sunday for the first time this season. It seems unlikely that it’ll happen twice in a row, and the team will probably be looking to rack up a few goals to get their swagger back after a tight-checking outing in Denver. They weren’t even bad against Colorado, they generated a ton of shots but just couldn’t bury their chances. If a rested Flames group can execute better than a group that had played five games over seven days, you have to like their chances against New Jersey.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

@Yegor Sharangovich – @Jack Hughes – @Dawson Mercer
@Tomas Tatar – @Nico Hischier – @Jesper Bratt
@Pavel Zacha – @Jesper Boqvist – @Andreas Johnsson
@Jimmy Vesey – @Michael McLeod – @Nathan Bastian

@Jonas Siegenthaler – @Damon Severson
@Ryan Graves – @Dougie Hamilton
@Ty Smith – @P.K. Subban

We’re expecting former Flames netminder @Jon Gillies to start for New Jersey after @Nico Daws started in Vancouver, but we’ll see: Gillies came into the game in relief, so the Devils may go back to Daws. The projected extras for the Devils are @Colton White, @Christian Jaros and @Mason Geertsen. A word of caution: Pavel Zacha left yesterday’s game with an injury and Jonas Siegenthaler was a late scratch with an illness: both are probably question marks for tonight’s game and the Devils are carrying tons of defenders for some reason, so tonight’s lineup could look fairly wacky if one or both of them are unavailable.

The Devils have had a rough year. They’ve had injury issues and they’ve had no consistency in net this season. They’re a team with a ton of exciting young players, but things just haven’t gelled the way they had hoped. They’re still a capable team, but they’ll need a lot of things to go their way if they’re going to upset the Flames this evening.

The Flames are healthy.

The Devils are without Jonathan Bernier, Mackenzie Blackwood, Miles Wood and Janne Kuokkonen.

The Flames visited Newark back in late October and beat the Devils 5-3. Vladar got the win and Mangiapane scored twice.

Your recommended Twitter follows for tonight’s contest:

Looking to up your fantasy hockey game? DailyFaceoff has the tools you need for both daily and season-long fantasy leagues, including a lineup optimizer, daily projections, and a whole lot more. Sign up for the DailyFaceoff tools here.