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The Calgary Flames are back in action tonight looking to rebound from a dud of a performance against Nashville.
Though the scoreline (4-3) made it look like a close, hard fought, game the reality is the Flames looked off from the word go and never really had a chance.
As a result of the regulation loss, and wins from Nashville and Vancouver, the Flames are sitting in the final Wild Card spot and their playoff position is hanging by a thread.
A couple weeks back it looked like the Flames could get involved in the race for the division title. Now, grabbing even the third spot in the division looks like a bit of a stretch, although a win against Edmonton tonight would certainly help their cause.
The Oilers, like the Flames, will be looking to rebound from a disappointing effort. They also lost to the Predators in their last game and were outshot by 12 so you know they'll be expecting a better performance tonight as well.
This will be a tough game but it's one the Flames really need to have. They can't continue to leave points on the table when many teams chasing them have games in hand.
Here are the expected line combinations for the Flames:
**will likely return to lineup after healthy scratch
Matthew Tkachuk - Mikael Backlund - Michael Frolik
Johnny Gaudreau - Sam Bennett** - Alex Chiasson
Kris Versteeg - Sean Monahan - Troy Brouwer
Lance Bouma - Matt Stajan - Micheal Ferland
Mark Giordano - Dougie Hamilton
T.J. Brodie - Dennis Wideman
Jyrki Jokipakka - Deryk Engelland
Chad Johnson
And the expected lines for the Oilers (via dailyfaceoff.com):
Patrick Maroon - Connor McDavid - Leon Draisaitl
Benoit Pouliot - Ryan Nugent-Hopkins - Jordan Eberle
Milan Lucic - Drake Caggiula - Anton Slepyshev
Matt Hendricks - Mark Letestu - Zack Kassian
Oscar Klefbom - Adam Larsson
Andrej Sekera - Kris Russell
Brandon Davidson - Matt Benning
Cam Talbot
A few notes:
1) McDavid has seven points in his last five, Draisaitl has six in his last five, and Maroon has two points to go with 11 shots in that span. On top of the offense they've brought to the table, they have also been dominant in possession controlling 57% of the shot attempts as a unit on the year. The Flames will have their hands full containing them tonight.
2) Johnson has had a good year but since December 19th he owns a .910 save percentage. He needs to be better.
3) Glen Gulutzan needs to keep the Jokipakka - Engelland pairing away from McDavid's line at all costs. If he doesn't, it will get ugly.
Tonight's game is scheduled for 10:00 eastern and can be seen on CBC and Sportsnet.
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