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Tonight the Calgary Flames are in Minnesota to kick off a four-game road trip against the Wild.
The Flames will be looking to build on an extremely successful three-game homestand in which they earned much needed wins against Anaheim, Chicago and Los Angeles – three teams above them in the standings.
Picking up where they left off won't be easy against the Minnesota Wild. While their 5-5-0 record over the last 10 games is hardly impressive, they have won four of their last six, and Zach Parise just returned from injury, so they appear to be heading in the right direction.
Tonight the Wild also have the luxury of playing at home, where they own a remarkable 14-4-2 record to date.
Depending what happens elsewhere, either team *could* find themselves in a playoff spot with a win in this game so there is certainly a lot on the line.
This should be a good one.
Here are the projected lineups:
Calgary
Johnny Gaudreau - Sean Monahan - Michael Ferland
Matthew Tkachuk - Mikael Backlund - Troy Brouwer
Sam Bennett - Mark Jankowski - Garnet Hathaway
Curtis Lazar - Matt Stajan - Andrew Mangiapane
Mark Giordano - Dougie Hamilton
T.J. Brodie - Travis Hamonic
Brett Kulak - Michael Stone
Mike Smith
Minnesota (via DailyFaceoff.com)
Nino Niederreiter - Mikko Koivu - Mikael Granlund
Joel Eriksson Ek - Charlie Coyle - Zach Parise
Jason Zucker - Eric Staal - Tyler Ennis
Marcus Foligno - Matt Cullen - Daniel Winnik
Ryan Suter - Jared Spurgeon
Jonas Brodin - Mathew Dumba
Gustav Olesson - Nate Prosser
Alex Stalock
What to watch:
1) Minnesota's new-look top line has been spectacular since being put together. The sample size is small (56 minutes), but they've controlled almost 62% of the attempts and own an expected goals for of 60.2% at 5v5. The Flames are going to have their hands full with that trio.
2) Ferland has scored a 5v5 goal in four of his last six games and is now tied with Patrick Kane, Jamie Benn, Vladimir Tarasenko and John Tavares for 9th in that category with 12.
3) Minnesota ranks 2nd with an expected goals against/60 of 2.03 while the Flames aren't that far behind (11th) at 2.30/60. This will probably be a close, low-scoring game.
4) Giordano has recorded 9+ shot attempts in seven of his last nine games after doing it just twice in his first 32. He continues to be a one-man shooting gallery so it's no surprise he's scored four times during this stretch.
5) The Wild rank 5th in goals against/60 and 6th in expected goals against/60 while killing penalties. This probably isn't the game for Calgary's power play to get back on track.
Puck drop is just after 8:00 eastern and can be seen on SNW and FS-N.
Recent posts:
On Jagr's impending exit
Top line dominates, leads Flames to comeback win over Kings
Flames waive Freddie Hamilton
On Mangiapane, Smith, and Giordano
Could the Flames be eying Evander Kane?
Flames sign Glenn Gawdin to entry-level contract
Calgary Flames Blogger • 
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