Let’s remember the words of the immortal Lou Brown in the classic 1989 film Major League:
“OK, we won a game [Saturday]. If we win today, it’s called “two in a row”. And if we win again [Wednesday], it’s called a “winning streak”… It has happened before!”
The Calgary Flames (11-12-3, 25 points) will try to win their second game in a row, and fifth game since Halloween, when they face the Pittsburgh Penguins (12-7-4, 28 points).
This one begins at 5 p.m. MT on Sportsnet West and Sportsnet 960 The Fan!

The Flames

Projected lines, via Daily Faceoff:
Gaudreau – Monahan – Lindholm
Tkachuk – Backlund – Mangiapane
Dube – Ryan – Lucic
Rieder – Jankowski – Frolik
Giordano – Brodie
Hanifin – Andersson
Kylington – Stone
David Rittich starts for the Flames, backed up by Cam Talbot. The projected scratches are Alexander Yelesin and Zac Rinaldo. TJ Brodie makes his return after his scary fainting spell 10 days ago. His return slots the defensive pairings in a more balanced way, so possibly that can help with game management. Brandon Davidson has been assigned to Stockton to open up a roster spot for Brodie.
The Flames played just fine on Saturday – they were out-chanced and out-higher-dangered – but Rittich was very good and the Flames got some goals at key times to win. Now that they have a bit of confidence and momentum, we’ll see if the Flames can build upon that success.
They’ve won a game, but they’re not out of the woods yet.

The Penguins

Projected lines, via Daily Faceoff:
Guentzel – Malkin – Rust
Galchenyuk – McCann – Tanev
Kahun – Simon – Hornqvist
Aston-Reese – Blueger – Lafferty
Dumoulin – Letang
Pettersson – Trotman
Johnson – Marino
Tristan Jarry starts for the Penguins, backed up by Matt Murray. The extra bodies are Chad Ruhwedel and Juuso Riikola. Kris Letang is a game time decision, but presumably with him being cleared and activated they’ll look to swap one of their extra D-men down to the AHL for a forward (or place Justin Schultz on the injury reserve to open a roster spot).
The Penguins are missing Sidney Crosby right now but surprisingly they continue to roll along. They have a deep team with smart coaching and their call-ups keep coming in and performing admirably. They’re a very tough test for the Flames this evening.

The Numbers

Flames
Penguins
Wins
11
12
Points
25
28
Adjusted Corsi
50.9%
53.5%
Power Play
15.5%
15.4%
Penalty Kill
85.6%
86.7%

Injury Report

The Flames are without D Travis Hamonic (lower body), F Sam Bennett (upper body), D Juuso Valimaki (ACL surgery) and F Austin Czarnik (lower body).
The Penguins are missing F Sidney Crosby (core muscle), D Justin Schultz (lower body) and F Nick Bjugstad (core muscle).

When Last We Met

These two clubs met twice in 2018-19. We all remember when the Penguins utterly clobbered the Flames by a 9-1 score in Calgary in October. But the Flames won the rematch 5-4 in a pretty wild afternoon game in February.

Know Thy Enemy

Here are some key Twitter peeps to follow for today’s game: