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Through two games of their eastern road trip, the Calgary Flames (7-5-2, 16 points) have earned three of a possible four points. They can turn a pretty good road trip into a very good road trip on Saturday afternoon when they visit the Buffalo Sabres (6-7-1, 13 points) in a matinee clash.
Today’s broadcast begins at 11 a.m. MT on Sportsnet’s national feed and Sportsnet 960 The Fan.

The Flames

Here are projected lines via Sportsnet’s Derek Wills:
Connor Zary – Nazem Kadri – Yegor Sharangovich
Jonathan Huberdeau – Martin Pospisil – Andrei Kuzmenko
Blake Coleman – Mikael Backlund – Matt Coronato
Ryan Lomberg – Kevin Rooney – Justin Kirkland
Kevin Bahl – Rasmus Andersson
MacKenzie Weegar – Daniil Miromanov
Jake Bean – Brayden Pachal
We’re projecting Dan Vladar to start in net – continuing the goalie rotation after each got two consecutive starts – with Dustin Wolf backing up. The projected extras are Tyson Barrie, Joel Hanley and Dryden Hunt.
Are the Flames a team that gets off to great starts? We would say no. They’ve led after the first period twice and after the second period twice. They’re a team that has flaws, and they’re prone to making mistakes at times. But they’re also a team that works hard and battles hard. With the exception of maybe a couple games this season, you cannot fault their work ethic. For a team that’s trying to instill a team culture and identity as they work through their rebuild process, that’s a big positive thus far.
We’ll see if the Flames can continue this positive stretch and close out their road trip with a victory.

The Sabres

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:
J.J. Peterka – Tage Thompson – Alex Tuch
Zach Benson – Dylan Cozens – Jack Quinn
Jordan Greenway – Ryan McLeod – Jason Zucker
Beck Malenstyn – Peyton Krebs – Sam Lafferty
Rasmus Dahlin – Bowen Byram
Owen Power – Jacob Bryson
Dennis Gilbert – Connor Clifton
We’re projecting Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen to start in goal, backed up by Devon Levi. The projected extras are Nicolas Aube-Kubel, Mattias Johansson and Henri Jokiharju.
After a bit of a slow start – they lost a pair of games in Czechia to New Jersey by a combined 7-2 score and the Devils social media feed posted a meme dunking on them – the Sabres have started to find their stride. They’re not red-hot by any stretch, but they’ve won back-to-back games fairly handily over Ottawa and the NY Rangers (by a combined score of 11-2) and they’re playing with a lot of speed, finesse and confidence.
It’s way too early to say that they’ve turned a corner, but at the very least the Sabres are a fun team to watch.

Unavailable players

The Flames are without Anthony Mantha.
The Sabres are healthy.

The numbers

Flames
Sabres
7
Wins
6
16 (.571)
Points (%)
13 (.464)
49.5%
(21st)
xGF%
48.8%
(20th)
17.1%
(21st)
PP%
14.0%
(28th)
73.3%
(27th)
PK%
76.1%
(21st)

Head to head

This is the first of two games between these two teams this season. They’ll close out the season series in Calgary on Jan. 23.