Flames Game Day 68: The Blues come to town (8pm MT, CBC/SNW/City)

The local sports team hopes to bounce back from their first consecutive losses in two months tonight at the Saddledome. The Calgary Flames (40-18-9, 89 points) are coming off a regulation loss to Colorado and an overtime loss to Los Angeles, their first losses in back-to-back outings since Jan. 7 & 13. They’re hosting the St. Louis Blues (37-20-10, 84 points), who’re playing their third game in four nights with travel, and lost in overtime last night.

The puck drops just after 8 p.m. MT. Catch all the action on CBC, City TV and Sportsnet’s national feed, 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 – @Ryan Carpenter – @Trevor Lewis

@Noah Hanifin – @Rasmus Andersson
@Michael Stone – @Chris Tanev
@Nikita Zadorov – @Erik Gudbranson

We’re expecting @Jacob Markstrom to start, backed up by @Daniel Vladar. The projected extras are @Connor Mackey and @Brett Ritchie. Carpenter comes in for the injured @Sean Monahan, while Stone comes in for the injured @Oliver Kylington.

The Flames are facing the most injury trouble they’ve had all season, missing two regulars – though it should be noted that Monahan had been a healthy scratch fairly recently. But the Flames are also a team that’s played well enough to have a chance to win the majority of their recent games, even when they have admittedly not played particularly well. The challenge for them right now will be finding a good level where they can keep consistently getting points over the last month of the season.

As usual, keep an eye out for @Johnny Gaudreau. He has 91 points and is creeping up to the 100 point plateau.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

@Brandon Saad – @Ryan O’Reilly – @David Perron
@Pavel Buchnevich – @Robert Thomas – @Vladimir Tarasenko
@Ivan Barbashev – @Brayden Schenn – @Alexei Toropchenko
@Mackenzie MacEachern – rotating – @Nathan Walker

@Marco Scandella – @Colton Parayko
@Nick Leddy – @Justin Faulk
@Calle Rosen – @Robert Bortuzzo
@Niko Mikkola

@Jordan Binnington started in Edmonton and was chased after 13 minutes, and @Ville Husso finished the game. So presumably this means the Flames see Binnington tonight, but we’ll see at warm-up. @Logan Brown is out sick, though, so the Blues will go 11 forwards and 7 blueliners against the Flames.

The Blues are juggling injuries and cap issues right now, but their big challenge last night against Edmonton was their goaltending. Neither of Binnington or Husso were great last night, and it gave the Oilers numerous chances to bounce back from goaltending foibles of their own. Perhaps we’ll see the Flames try to get into the net-front area and get bodies and deflections, given the challenges the Blues have had recently.

This is the second time the Blues have visited Calgary and played their third game in four nights. The last time it happened, they gave up seven goals. (The NHL schedule is weird, as the Flames’ lone visit to St. Louis was also the Flames’ third game in four nights.)

The Flames are without Sean Monahan and Oliver Kylington.

The Blues are without Scott Perunovich, Tyler Bozak, Torey Krug, Jordan Kyrou and Logan Brown.

This is the third and final meeting between these clubs in the regular season. They’ve exchanged one-sided wins: a 7-1 Flames win in Calgary, and a 5-1 Blues win in St. Louis.

Your recommended Twitter follows for tonight’s contest:

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