Flames Game Day 67: Welcoming the Kings for the Sutter Bowl (7pm MT, SN West)

It’s a big-time divisional clash on Thursday night at the Saddledome! The Pacific Division leading Calgary Flames (40-18-8, 88 points) try to cement their lead when they host the second place Los Angeles Kinsg (36-23-10, 82 points), who played on Wednesday night and lost in a shootout in Edmonton. Can the Flames bounce back from a tight loss to the Avalanche and put additional distance between themselves and the Kings?

The puck drops just after 7 p.m. MT. Catch all the action on Sportsnet West or Sportsnet 960 The Fan!

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

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

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

We’re expecting @Jacob Markstrom to start, backed up by @Daniel Vladar. The projected extras are @Michael Stone, @Brett Ritchie and @Ryan Carpenter. It’s the exact same players and configuration that played against Colorado.

The good news: the Flames are a really good even strength team. The bad news: their usually stingy penalty kill has allowed five goals over their past two games after allowing five in their entire home schedule prior to these two dates. If the Flames want to get to where they want to go, they’ll need more from their PK group than they’ve seen recently.

As usual, keep an eye on @Johnny Gaudreau. He’s quite good at hockey, and tends to have magnificent performances against Los Angeles.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

@Alex Iafallo – @Anze Kopitar – @Adrian Kempe
@Trevor Moore – @Phillip Danault – @Viktor Arvidsson
@Gabriel Vilardi – @Quinton Byfield – @Rasmus Kupari
@Carl Grundstrom – @Lias Andersson – @Arthur Kaliyev

@Tobias Bjornfot – @Sean Durzi
@Alexander Edler – @Troy Stecher
@Olli Maatta – @Jordan Spence

We’re expecting @Cal Peterson to start, backed up by @Jonathan Quick. Last night’s healthy extas were @Jacob Moverare and @Austin Strand; we’ll see if either slot in tonight. They’ve recalled @Jaret Anderson-Dolan from Ontario of the AHL on an emergency basis, which means that one of their forwards is hurt and they’ll need him to slot in.

The Kings are one of the better success stories in the league this season. Powered by some really nice performances across their lineup, they’ve seemingly reached some lineup maturity a bit ahead of schedule. That said, they’ve slid back to the pack a bit recently, with injuries and a frenetic schedule catching up to them. (They’re missing eight regulars!)

It’ll be an interesting, emotional game, with Flames head coach Darryl Sutter and players Tyler Toffoli, Milan Lucic and Trevor Lewis facing their old team. Flames/Kings games always seem to have an amped-up emotionality to them, and this game is shaping up to be no exception.

The Flames are healthy.

The Kings are without Sean Walker, Andreas Athanasiou, Dustin Brown, Brendan Lemieux, Matt Roy, Mikey Anderson, Drew Doughty and Blake Lizotte.

This is the second of three meetings between these two clubs. The Flames visited what was then Staples Center back in December, winning 3-2. They’ll meet again next week in Los Angeles to close out their regular season series.

Your recommended Twitter follows for tonight’s contest:

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