The Calgary Flames will continue their nightmarish six-game road trip when they visit the defending champion Florida Panthers on Saturday afternoon.

Calgary’s six opponents from this road trip own a combined record of 114-49-15 on home ice this season. Six points from the road trip would have to be viewed as a success, and the Flames are halfway there having upset the Washington Capitals on Tuesday evening, before a spirited 3-0 loss in Tampa on Thursday.

The Panthers look like they will once again be a very tough out come the postseason, as they have won two straight matchups and hold a record of 7-3-0 over the last 10 games. They will be without superstar forward Matthew Tkachuk in this matchup, who was injured in the 4 Nations Face-Off.

I’ll detail the relevant game notes, as well as outline my favourite betting angle below.

The Flames suffered a pretty familiar loss on Thursday versus the Tampa Bay Lightning, as they displayed a professional work rate in all areas of the game, and were able to create a comparable amount of chances to the Lightning. They were unable to finish any of their quality chances versus Andrei Vasilevskiy, however, who has been the hottest goaltender in the NHL with a .934 save percentage since January 1st.

The Flames outshot the Lightning 27-22 in Thursday’s loss, and lost the expected goals battle 3.22 to 2.87.

In an effort to kickstart his offence, head coach Ryan Huska shook up his lines at Friday’s practice. The top line was kept intact, which makes sense at this point as it seems clear that Nazem Kadri and Jonathan Huberdeau should stay together, while Matthew Coronato might be the best finisher on the team.

The Flames’ new-look second line looks concerning on paper, as both Yegor Sharangovich and Mikael Backlund have looked quite out of form in recent matchups. While it’s tough to say if that line will be overly effective, the revamped third line of Connor Zary, Morgan Frost, and Joel Farabee does look quite intriguing.

Frost has shown strong offensive flashes during his brief tenure with the team, particularly on the power play, and could be a good fit alongside Zary, who has some of the highest offensive upside on the team.

Unsurprisingly, Calgary looks to be keeping its fourth line of Ryan Lomberg, Kevin Rooney, and Martin Pospisil intact. Calgary’s fourth trio has provided a ton of energy in the first two games of the road trip, and has done a good job of limiting scoring opportunities.

Over the last 10 games, the Flames hold an expected goal share of 44.16% across all strengths and have struggled to suppress scoring chances at a decent rate. They have allowed the league’s fourth-highest xGA/60 of 3.64 and have generated 2.88 xGF/60.

At the time of writing, it is unclear whether or not this start will be offered to Dustin Wolf or Dan Vladar. The Flames have another tough matchup on Sunday in Carolina, and will likely split the starts between the two. Wolf has played to a 10.0 GSAx and .913 save percentage, while Vladar holds a -2.2 GSAx and .891 save percentage.

All of the most important skaters from Florida’s Stanley Cup run remain on the roster and in their primes, and will surely prove to be a tough out once again this spring. While the Panthers have possibly looked slightly complacent at times this season, all of their top pieces have looked more-or-less as expected, while newcomers such as Mackie Samoskevich, Nate Schmidt, and Uvis Balinskis have looked quite solid.

At age 22, Samoskevich looks likely to be turning into a noteworthy NHL player, as the former first-round pick has great hands and is a strong skater. Due to Tkachuk’s injury, Samoskevich has currently moved onto the second line and top power play, and has put up two goals over the last four games.

While it’s unlikely anybody in the organization is overly worried about goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, he has had a fairly mediocre season thus far. Bobrovsky holds a -0.5 GSAx rating and .902 save percentage in 39 appearances.

It may not be the style of play head coach Paul Maurice’s side authors in the postseason, but they have been a fairly high event team thus far this season. They rank seventh in the league averaging 3.28 goals for per game, but are outside of the top third in allowing 2.85 goals against per game.

Over the last 10 games, the Panthers rank first in the NHL with a xGF/60 rating of 4.48 and have scored 3.50 goals where it counts.

The Flames could be the more desperate side in this matchup as they push for a postseason berth versus a Panthers side that is probably finding the regular season quite mundane. While Calgary’s offence once again fell flat in Tampa Bay, Vasilevskiy has been incredible over the last two months, while the Lightning have been among the league’s best defensive sides.

Bobrovsky has been fairly shaky this season, and it wouldn’t surprise me to see the Flames find a little positive offensive regression in this matchup. The Panthers’ offensive play has actually been their greatest strength this season, though, and will likely generate a high number of quality chances versus a Flames side that has struggled defensively in recent matchups.

While Flames games don’t exactly scream high-event hockey right now, I believe this game could feature a little more offence than its low betting total of 5.5 suggests. At -124 or better, I see value backing the game to go over 5.5 total goals.