Flames Game Day 72: Getting Kraken in Seattle to close out the road trip (5pm MT, SNW/One)

After going perfect in the state of California, the Calgary Flames (43-19-9, 95 points) will try to finish off their road trip in style when they visit the Seattle Kraken (23-42-6, 52 points) on Saturday night. The Flames are closing in on clinching a playoff spot officially, but getting to 95 points essentially has gotten them above the eventual cut-line for the post-season. Plus, when a team has won the first three games of a four game trip, they kind of get their hearts set on going for the clean sweep.

The puck drops just after 5 p.m. MT. Catch all the action on Sportsnet West (and One) 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
@Connor Mackey – @Chris Tanev
@Nikita Zadorov – @Michael Stone

The Flames don’t skate today because of the early start, but we’re expecting @Jacob Markstrom to start in net, backed up by @Daniel Vladar. The expected extras are @Juuso Valimaki and @Brett Ritchie. Per Postmedia’s Wes Gilbertson, @Erik Gudbranson didn’t skate on Friday, but everybody else did. @Oliver Kylington (unspecified injury) remains in Calgary. (Via Gilbertson: if Calle Jarnkrok plays today, he’ll be the first-ever former Kraken to play games for and against that team.)

After a three game losing streak (oh no!) the Flames have rattled off three consecutive wins (hooray!). The Flames aren’t playing a whole lot better than they were when they were losing, and they’ve been missing a slew of regulars due to bumps, bruises and a non-COVID illness, but they’ve managed to find ways to win at key times rather than finding ways to lose. Ultimately, that’s the difference between a team that wins their division and has home ice throughout the playoffs and one that has a more dramatic path.

@Johnny Gaudreau reached 99 points with a two point effort on Thursday, matching his career high for points. He’ll try to hit triple digits against the worst team in the Pacific Division.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

@Ryan Donato – @Alexander Wennberg – @Jordan Eberle
@Victor Rask – @Yanni Gourde – @Kole Lind
@Jared McCann – @Morgan Geekie – @Karson Kuhlman
@Daniel Sprong – @Riley Sheahan – @Joonas Donskoi

@Vince Dunn – @Adam Larsson
@Carson Sousy – @Cale Fleury
@Jamie Oleksiak – @William Borgen

Coming off a shutout win in Chicago, we’re expecting @Philipp Grubauer to start and be backed up by @Chris Driedger. Vince Dunn is a question mark after leaving Thursday’s game with an apparent injury. The Kraken’s extra is @Derrick Pouliot.

Seattle is 32 points out of a playoff spot. Not surprisingly, they’re eliminated from contention. They’ve traded away a bunch of their key assets and now have oodles of cap space and many, many draft picks. (Many.) They could be a good team in the future.

They are not a good team right now, but they’re still capable of winning games.

The Flames are without Sean Monahan and Oliver Kylington.

The Kraken are without Brandon Tanev, Jaden Schwartz and Haydn Fleury.

The Flames have beaten the Kraken twice this season, but both of the games were fairly close. They’ll finish off their season series on Tuesday in Calgary.

Your recommended Twitter follows for tonight’s contest: