Flames Game Day 76: Heading to Chicago, four months late (6pm MT, SN West)

A little more than four months after they were supposed to originally play the game, the Calgary Flames (46-20-9, 101 points) are visiting the Chicago Blackhawks (25-39-11, 61 points) in a game that was supposed to be played in mid-December before the Flames had their COVID outbreak and had their season paused. The Flames have a playoff spot sewn up, Chicago has a lottery spot sewn up, but the Flames are hoping to inch closer to a division title through 60 minutes of good hockey.

The game is set for 6 p.m. MT and you can catch it on Sportsnet’s national feed, and on 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 – @Adam Ruzicka – @Trevor Lewis

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

We’re expecting @Jacob Markstrom to return to the net and be backed up by @Daniel Vladar (who usually starts the second half of back-to-back sets). The expected scratches are @Brett Ritchie, @Connor Mackey, @Michael Stone and @Ryan Carpenter.

The Flames have won six of their last seven games and put up nine goals on Arizona last time out. They’re not playing perfect hockey right now, though, so until they clinch the division the focus will probably be on playing smart, 60 minute games rather than relying on their prodigious offensive talent to win track meets.

They enter the evening with a magic number of 3 to clinch the division: any combination of Flames wins and Edmonton losses adding up to three gives the Flames the top spot in the Pacific Division. The Flames play today and tomorrow, while Edmonton is off until Wednesday.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

@Alex Debrincat – @Dylan Strome – @Patrick Kane
@Tyler Johnson – @Jonathan Toews – @Taylor Raddysh
@Dominik Kubalik – @Lukas Reichel – @Sam Lafferty
@Boris Katchouk – @Reese Johnson – @Mackenzie Entwhistle

@Alex Vlasic – @Seth Jones
@Jake McCabe – @Alex Regula
@Caleb Jones – @Calvin de Haan

@Kevin Lankinen is expected to start in goal for Chicago, backed up by @Collin Delia. Their projected scratches are @Henrik Borgstrom, @Philipp Kurashev, @Riley Stillman and @Erik Gustafsson.

Chicago has not won a game in regulation since Mar. 23. Since then, they have gone 2-7-2, winning twice in a shootout. They are trying out new young players and very much playing out the string.

The Flames are without Sean Monahan.

The Blackhawks are without Andrew Shaw, Jujhar Khaira, Connor Murphy and Kirby Dach.

This is the third and final game between these teams this season. The Flames beat Chicago 5-2 in November and 5-1 in January.

Your recommended Twitter follows for tonight’s contest: