Winners of back-to-back home games, the Calgary Flames (11-15-4, 26 points) look to continue a run of pretty effective play when they continue their homestand against the Buffalo Sabres (11-13-4, 26 points). The Flames have started to climb out of the NHL’s basement lately, while the Sabres have been running in place. Can the Flames keep their winning ways going?

Today’s broadcast begins at 7 p.m. MT on Sportsnet West and Sportsnet 960 The Fan.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Yegor Sharangovich – Nazem Kadri – Joel Farabee
Jonathan Huberdeau – Morgan Frost – Matt Coronato
Connor Zary – Mikael Backlund – Blake Coleman
Ryan Lomberg – John Beecher – Adam Klapka

Yan Kuznetsov – MacKenzie Weegar
Kevin Bahl – Rasmus Andersson
Joel Hanley – Brayden Pachal

We’re projecting Dustin Wolf to start in net, backed up by Devin Cooley. Hunter Brzustewicz was called up this morning but isn’t expected to play, with Dryden Hunt being the other extra. Jake Bean is expected to miss this game with an injury that’s being evaluated.

The Flames are 6-2-1 over their last nine games. Their two losses were clunkers against Tampa Bay and Nashville. But otherwise they’ve been quite good, and they’ve managed to find their rhythm, roll their lines and play a simple, structured, occasionally boring type of hockey. They’re not a run and gun team. They’re smart enough not to run and gun. But when they’re able to drag a team into the muck, they can be quite effective.

We’ll see if they can keep their momentum rolling against Buffalo.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Jordan Greenway – Tage Thompson – Alex Tuch
Zach Benson – Josh Norris – Josh Doan
Jason Zucker – Ryan McLeod – Jack Quinn
Beck Malenstyn – Peyton Krebs – Tyson Kozak

Mattias Samuelsson – Rasmus Dahlin
Bowen Byram – Conor Timmins
Owen Power – Jacob Bryson

We’re projecting Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen to start in net, backed up by Alex Lyon. (Lyon’s been backing up lately, with Colten Ellis and Luukkonen rotating starts.). The projected extras skaters are Joshua Dunne and Zach Metsa.

Since the last time the Flames met the Sabres, Buffalo has played eight games. They won twice, then lost twice, then won twice, then lost twice. This is sort of how their season has gone: alternating wins and losses. Their trip to Calgary is the third game in a six game road trip, and they’ve lost their first two games.

We’ll see if the Sabres can shake the rust off and play a better game than they did when they lost to the Flames last month.

The Flames are without Martin Pospisil, Zayne Parekh, Sam Honzek and Jake Bean.

The Sabres are without Justin Danforth, Jiri Kulich and Michael Kesselring.

This game will conclude the two game season series between these clubs. The Flames beat Buffalo by a 6-2 score back in mid November.

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