Flames Game Day 69: A nice trip to Los Angeles (8:30pm MT, SN West/One)

After meeting last week at the Saddledome, a pair of divisional rivals close out their regular season series tonight at the unfortunately-named Crypto.com Arena! The Calgary Flames (40-19-9, 89 points) head south to tangle with the Los Angeles Kings (38-23-10, 86 points). It’s the Flames’ 69th game of the season, and they’re just three points up on the Kings (albeit with three games in hand). Can the Flames get back into the win column, or will the Kings spoil their trip to SoCal?

The puck drops just after 8:30 p.m. MT. Catch all the action on Sportsnet West (and One) or Sportsnet 960 The Fan! The Sportsnet national feed (including West) is showing the Toronto/Tampa Bay game earlier, so this game probably starts on Sportsnet One.

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, @Juuso Valimaki and @Adam Ruzicka. Both @Brett Ritchie and @Oliver Kylington didn’t participate in morning skate, per Sportsnet’s Eric Francis.

The Flames have lost three games in a row (0-2-1) against three pretty decent opponents in Colorado, Los Angeles and St. Louis. That said, the Flames weren’t lousy in those games, they just made mistakes at key times that came back to haunt them. If the Flames can tighten up their details, they’ll start getting the results they want.

The Flames’ stars have been a bit quiet of late, but keep an eye on @Johnny Gaudreau: he’s usually great against the Kings.

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. Their healthy extas are @Jacob Moverare and @Austin Strand.

Here are some facts about the Kings, friends:

The Kings are a well-coached team that sticks to their structure and has really sneaky skill throughout their lineup. They played the Flames very well last week when they visited, and expect a similar game here: low-event, tight-checking, and intense.

The Flames are without Sean Monahan, Oliver Kylington and Brett Ritchie.

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

These two teams split their first two meetings: the Flames won 3-2 in Los Angeles in December, while the Kings beat the Flames 3-2 in a shootout last week.

Your recommended Twitter follows for tonight’s contest:

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