Calgary shooting for a six-pack of wins as the Seattle Kraken visit one last time this season
Calgary Flames (30-25-5, 65 points) versus Seattle Kraken (26-23-11, 63 points)
So much to pack into the night. The Flames are shooting for their first six-game winning streak since their franchise-record-tying 10-game run from Jan. 29, 2022 through Feb. 21, 2022, and desperately need a win sitting seven points back of the Nashville Predators for the final wild-card playoff position — albeit, with two games in hand.
This is the last home game before the trade deadline on Friday, so it likely could be the final time we see defenceman Noah Hanifin in Calgary colours (and who knows who else — with the situation for Jacob Markstrom also up in the air).
What impact is felt from that situation will be curious to see. Do the Flames look at the standings and feel frustration or do they build off Saturday's thrilling 4-3 comeback victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins, which was a sparkling conclusion on a night former Calgary star goalie Miikka Kiprusoff’s number was raised to the rafters? To their credit, the Flames have held their own amidst a constant stream of trade rumours.
“I feel there’s more noise on the outside than there is inside here," defenceman Oliver Kylington said. "We’re just having a good vibe. Looking forward to each game and wanting to control what we can control. That’s out team.”
That said, plenty of teams in this situation have packed it in when knowing they will be dealing away players, and not all have watched as many key players depart as the Flames have seen, with and with more to come. To their credit, the Flames have kept their focus on trying to make the playoffs.
“We know we can do it," insisted Jonathan Huberdeau. "Despite a lot of talk about our team, we know what we can do as a group. We’ve been showing it and it’s just to do it until the end of the season. You never know what can happen in the NHL.”
With Connor Zary out due to injury, the Flames summoned Matt Coronato from the AHL Wranglers, but it appears he will not play. Instead, Andrei Kuzmenko is pencilled to play on a line with Nazem Kadri and Martin Pospisil and Walker Duehr will return to the lineup and skate on the fourth line.
The Kraken arrive in even more of a dire situation for a playoff berth, a couple of points behind the Flames. While the Flames have done most of their selling off regarding pending unrestricted free-agents, the Kraken have not, with forwards Jordan Eberle, Alexander Wennberg, Tomas Tatar and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and defenceman Justin Schultz all pending UFAs. With that in mind, Wennberg — their second-line centre — is being held out due to "trade-related issues", causing a shuffling of the lines.
The Kraken arrive in cold Calgary after seeing their modest two-game winning streak snapped by a 2-1 loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday.
Here is Calgary’s expected lineup
Forwards:
Andrei Kuzmenko-Nazem Kadri-Martin Pospisil
Andrew Mangiapane-Mikael Backlund-Blake Coleman
Jonathan Huberdeau-Yegor Sharangovich-Dryden Hunt
Jakob Pelletier-Kevin Rooney-Walker Duehr
Extra: Matt Coronato
Defence:
Oliver Kylington-Rasmus Andersson
Noah Hanifin-MacKenzie Weegar
Dennis Gilbert-Brayden Pachal
Extra: Jordan Oesterle
Goal:
Jacob Markstrom
Dan Vladar
Markstrom has an 3-1-0 career record against the Kraken with a 2.38 goals-against average and .899 save percentage. Vladar has a 5-1-0 mark against Pittsburgh with a 2.80 GAA and .897 SvPct.
Seattle
Forwards:
Andre Burakovsky-Matty Beniers-Jordan Eberle
Jaden Schwartz-Jared McCann-Oliver Bjorkstrand
Eeli Tolvanen-Yanni Gourde-Tye Kartye
Tomas Tatar-Kailer Yamamoto-Brandon Tanev
Defence:
Vince Dunn-Adam Larsson
Jamie Oleksiak-Will Borgen
Brian Dumoulin-Justin Schultz
Goal:
Philipp Grubauer
Joey Daccord
Grubauer has a 2-5-1 record with a 2.91 GAA and .913 SvPct. against Calgary. Daccord sports a 1-0-1 mark with a 3.30 GAA and .897 SvPct.
ICE CHIPS: Flames F Yegor Sharangovich — who has scored three goals in the past two games, two of them game winners — needs one more tally to equal his career for goals in a season, 24 ... The Kraken have scored power-play goals in three consecutive games and six of seven outings (6-for-24) ... While Flames RW Blake Coleman has scored in three consecutive games and C Nazem Kadri has five goals in the past five games ... Calgary has won eight of 10 all-time meetings with Seattle, including two of three this season. The Kraken took the last clash, a 2-1 game in Calgary on Dec. 27. In fact, both of Seattles victories over the Flames have been in the Stampede City.
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