Flames faces the Nashville Predators, who hold the Western Conference's first wild-card spot, in a quest to match a season-best mark with three straight victories
Flames (16-16-5, 37 points) at Nashville Predators (21-16-1 43 points)
A chance to go above the NHL’s version of .500 … again.
The Calgary Flames resume their four-game road swing with Thursday’s clash against the Nashville Predators.
Calgary, which opened the trip with a 3-1 victory over the Minnesota Wild, are three points behind the Arizona Coyotes — who hold the second wild-card position. There are three other teams between Calgary and the Coyotes: the Edmonton Oilers, Seattle Kraken and St. Louis Blues. The Coyotes, Kraken and Blues all also play tonight.
The Flames and Predators have split the season series 1-1 so far, with the home team winning both times. Calgary has lost four of the last five trips to Nashville, two of them in extra time.
The Predators, who hold the first wild-card position, are coming off victories over the Washington Capitals and Chicago Blackhawks, but also have a 3-3-1 mark in their last seven outings.
Nashville captain Roman Josi is currently tied with Shea Weber for most goals in franchise history with 166.
Here’s a look at Calgary’s expected lineup:
Forwards:
Jonathan Huberdeau-Elias Lindholm-Yegor Sharangovich
Andrew Mangiapane-Mikael Backlund-Blake Coleman
Connor Zary-Nazem Kadri-Martin Pospisil
A.J. Greer-Adam Ruzicka -Dillon Dube
Extra: Walker Duehr
Defence:
Noah Hanifin-Chris Tanev
Dennis Gilbert-Rasmus Andersson
Jordan Oesterle-MacKenzie Weegar
Extra: Nick DeSimone
Goal:
Dan Vladar
Jacob Markstrom
Vladar has a 1-0-1 career mark against the Predators, with a 2.86 goals-against average and .880 save percentage. Markstrom has a career 4-6-3 career record against Nashville with a 2.92 GAA average and .911 SvPct.
Here is the expected roster for the Predators:
Forwards:
Filip Forsberg-Ryan O’Reilly-Gustav Nyquist
Cole Smith-Tommy Novak-Luke Evangelista
Colton Sissons-Juuso Parssinen-Kiefer Sherwood
Yakov Trenin-Michael McCarron-Philip Tomasino
Defence:
Roman Josi-Dante Fabbro
Jeremy Lauzon-Alexandre Carrier
Ryan McDonagh-Luke Schenn
Goal:
Juuse Saros
Kevin Lankinen
Saros has a 9-2-1 mark against the Flames, with a 2.44 GAA and .928 SvPct. Lankinen has a 1-1-0 record, 2.01 GAA and .936 SvPct.
ICE CHIPS: The Predators are delivering a more offensive attack, sitting 16th in the league in goals-for-per-game at 3.08. By comparison, the Flames are 23rd at 2.97 … Nashville RW Luke Evangelista has scored in two consecutive games and RW Gustav Nyquist is riding a six-game point streak (5-4-9) … One key to Nashville’s perch in the standings: a 6-1 overtime/shootout record, including a 2-0 mark in shootouts. The Flames are 0-4 in shootouts and 3-1 in games decided in overtime … Stat worth watching: the Predators have outscored opponents 40-33 in the first period and been outscored 35-26 in the third period. The Flames have been outscored 42-29 in the first period but outscored opponents 45-38 in the third period … Nashville C Ryan O’Reilly has scored 10 power-play goals. The Flames as a team have 14 PPGs.
