Flames Gameday: Flames push to close out their road trip on a positive note against the Chicago Blackhawks without Connor Bedard

Calgary has won two of three on their current trip, Blackhawks in a free fall made worse by a tsunami of injuries

Flames (17-17-5, 39 points) at Chicago Blackhawks (11-26-2, 24 points)

The Chicago Blackhawks were a bottom feeder team from the start of the season and have only become worse with the loss of hot-shot rookie Connor Bedard due the fractured jaw he suffered on Friday.

What remains in Windy City is a shell of an NHL squad due to a litany of injuries.

The Flames have no excuse if they don’t end a four-game trip with a victory.

Coming off their 3-2 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday in the first half of afternoon games on consecutive days, the Flames have no reason to look past a struggling Blackhawks who are destined to have big odds to win a second consecutive draft lottery.

The Flames go into the day’s action only two points outside a playoff berth, and should be reminded how last season they lost all three meetings with the Blackhawks — a huge reason they missed the playoffs.

The Blackhawks, who are ahead of only the San Jose Sharks in the standings, have lost five consecutive games and has won only twice in 13 outings.

Chicago is without its top defenceman Seth Jones and forwards Taylor Hall, Tyler Johnson, Andreas Athanasiou, Anthony Beauvillier, Taylor Radish, Joey Anderson and Nick Foligno.

With no morning skate, here’s a look at Calgary’s possible lineup, but don't be surprised if the deck gets shuffled:

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
Rasmus Andersson-MacKenzie Weegar
Jordan Oesterle-Nick DeSimone
Extra: Yan Kuznetsov
Goal:
Dan Vladar
Jacob Markstrom
Vladar has a career 0-0-1 career record against Chicago with a 1.48 goals-against average and .929 save percentage. His lone game was last season when he took the net early in the second period after Markstrom surrendered his third goal and was beat on one shot — the overtime winner in a 4-3 finish. Markstrom has a 9-3-4 mark with a 2.70 GAA and .913 SvPct.

Here is the potential roster for the Blackhawks:
Forwards:
Ryan Donato-Lukas Reichel-Philipp Kurashev
Cole Gutteman-Jason Dickinson-Colin Blackwell
Boris Katchouk-MacKenzie Entwistle-Reese Johnson
Brett Seney-Zach Sanford
Defence:
Jarred Tinordi-Connor Murphy
Alex Vlasic-Jaycob Megna
Kevin Korchinski-Nikita Zaitsev
Isaak Phillips
Goal:
Petr Mrazek
Arvid Soderblom
Mrazek has a 4-2-2 mark against the Flames, with a 2.88 GAA and .906 SvPct. Soderblom has a 0-1-0 record, 4.05 GAA and .902 SvPct.

ICE CHIPS: Calgary has a 0-4-0 record this season in the second half of games on back-to-back days ... Flames forwards Blake Coleman (three goals, three assists) and Andrew Mangiapane (one goal, five assists) are riding four-game point streaks ... Coleman leads Calgary with a plus-18 rating. Next highest is a trio of players at plus-7. Flawed stat as it is, that is impressive on a team that's negative in goals-for/goals-against ... F Zach Sanford (claimed off waivers from Arizona) are expected to make his Blackhawks debut. F Rem Pitlick (acquired from Pittsburgh) is not able to get to Chicago in time due to weather, therefore Chicago is expected to dress seven defencemen. In the past week, Chicago also claimed D Jaycob Megna off waivers from Seattle ... Of Chicago's current active roster, Sanford is the leader in goals (3), assists (6) and points (9) against the Flames. Amazingly, Sanford has only played 10 games against Calgary.