Flames gunning for a four-game winning streak against a Los Angeles squad that dropped a Monday night clash in Edmonton
Calgary Flames (28-25-5, 61 points) versus Los Angeles Kings (29-18-10, 68 points)
The roller-coaster riding Flames are gunning for a fourth consecutive victory and third straight on home ice. Sitting five points out of the Western Conference’s second wild-card spot, currently held by the Nashville Predators, the Flames are in desperate need of a miracle run to vault three teams and make the Stanley Cup tournament — even with two dozen games remaining on the schedule. Los Angeles, which has an identical record as Calgary’s in its last 10 games (7-3-0), holds the conference’s first wild-card position.
Of course, we also have that March 8 trade deadline looming with the likes of Noah Hanifin, Chris Tanev and Jacob Markstrom among the league’s biggest names who could be moved.
Based on the reports from the morning skate, the Flames will go with the same lineup that beat the Edmonton Oilers 6-3 on Saturday, which would mean Andrei Kuzmenko — who missed that game due to illness — will not play. Coach Ryan Huska said Kuzmenko should be in the lineup on Saturday when the Flames play host to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The Kings, who dropped a 4-2 game last night in Edmonton, did not have a morning skate, so their lineup will have a couple of questions we won’t know the answer to until the warmup. Notably, forward Adrian Kempe was hurt late in the third period of the affair, and his absence from the first line could create a shuffling of the deck.
With David Rittich having played in goal in Edmonton, expect the other former Flames netminder Cam Talbot to take the net. In 15 career starts against Calgary, Talbot has a 10-5-0 record with two shutouts, a 2.58 goals-against average and .915 save percentage.
Here is Calgary’s expected lineup
Forwards:
Connor Zary-Nazem Kadri-Martin Pospisil
Andrew Mangiapane-Mikael Backlund-Blake Coleman
Jonathan Huberdeau-Yegor Sharangovich-Dryden Hunt
Jakob Pelletier-Kevin Rooney-Walker Duehr
Extra: Andrei Kuzmenko
Defence:
MacKenzie Weegar-Rasmus Andersson
Noah Hanifin-Chris Tanev
Oliver Kylington-Brayden Pachal
Extras: Dennis Gilbert, Jordan Oesterle
Goal:
Jacob Markstrom
Dan Vladar
Markstrom has an 10-5-4 career record against the Kings with a 2.91 goals-against average and .913 save percentage. Vladar has a 0-0-1 mark against Los Angeles with a 4.32 GAA and .867 SvPct.
ICE CHIPS: Flames C Nazem Kadri is riding a three-game goal and point streak, in which he’s posted four goals and six points. Since returning from the all-star break, Kadri has collected five goals and 12 points in nine games … RW Martin Pospisil has scored in consecutive games after a 20-game goal slump … Speaking of Pospisil, Calgary’s record with him in the lineup is an impressive 25-13-4 … Not boding well for the Flames power play, which is 30th overall at 14.5%, is the fact Los Angeles has the league’s top penalty kill rate at 86.2% (Calgary is fifth, 82.8%) … Flames LW Andrew Mangiapane will skate in his 400th regular season game … Of active players, Kings C Anze Kopitar is tied with Leon Draisaitl of the Edmonton Oilers in third spot for the most career points against the Flames with 56 (20-36-56) in 66 games. Ahead of him are Joe Pavelski (62 points) and Patrick Kane (59).