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Five things to watch for when the Calgary Flames take on the New York Islanders:
1. Mike Smith's return
Smith is expected to play his first game since suffering an injury a month ago to these same Islanders. While David Rittich has done a better job of holding down the fort of late, the Flames dealt with questionable goaltending for the majority of the time Smith was out and it definitely cost them some much needed points in the standings.
If Smith is ready to go and can play at a level close to the one he's been at for almost the entirety of the season, it'll be a huge boost for the Flames – and one they need. They can't afford to drop many more points.
2. Chances galore
The Islanders have tightened up defensively a little bit of late but they still rank 31st on the year in scoring chances against/60, 31st in high-danger chances against/60, and 30th in expected goals against/60.
Last time these teams met the Flames generated 50(!!!) scoring chances, 24 of which were considered high-danger. I don't know that they'll get to that number today, but I don't think the desperate Flames will have a hard time mustering up offense.
3. Matchups
I'm not sure if Calgary will hard match given New York has two lines featuring elite centers. If they do, I think they'd be smart to stick the 3M line on Mathew Barzal's unit.
I know John Tavares, and his line, have more name brand but Barzal ranks 5th in the NHL in 5v5 points and his unit controls 57% of the expected goals, compared to just 47% for Tavares' line.
It'll be interesting to see how Glen Gulutzan handles this.
4. Calgary's PP vs New York's PK
The Flames' power play has seemingly run into a lot of good spots of late and that'll be the case again tonight.
The Islanders rank 30th in shot attempts against/60 and 29th in goals against/60 so Calgary's power play, which has been mostly good since Dougie Hamilton moved to the top unit, should be able to take advantage if the Isles run into penalty trouble.
5. Offense from the defense
There is usually a lot in games featuring the Flames and this one should be no different as it features four of the top-10 volume shooters at 5v5.
Dougie Hamilton ranks 2nd to Brent Burns and Mark Giordano isn't far behind slotting in 7th. On the other side of things, Johnny Boychuk sits 3rd while Ryan Pulock, who can really bring it, is 8th.
Expect a lot of point shots in this one.
Here are the projected lineups:
Calgary
Johnny Gaudreau - Sean Monahan - Micheal Ferland
Matthew Tkachuk - Mikael Backlund - Michael Frolik
Sam Bennett - Mark Jankowski - Garnet Hathaway
Curtis Lazar - Matt Stajan - Troy Brouwer
Mark Giordano - Dougie Hamilton
T.J. Brodie - Travis Hamonic
Brett Kulak - Michael Stone
Mike Smith
New York (via DailyFaceoff.com)
Anders Lee - John Tavares - Josh Bailey
Andrew Ladd - Mathew Barzal - Jordan Eberle
Anthony Beauvillier - Brock Nelson - Tanner Fritz
Chris Wagner - Casey Cizikas - Cal Clutterbuck
Nick Leddy - Johnny Boychuk
Thomas Hickey - Ryan Pulock
Adam Pelech - Brandon Davidson
Jaroslav Halak/Chris Gibson
Puck drop is just after 7:00 eastern and can be seen on SN and MSG+.
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Gaudreau - Monahan - Ferland line has been one of league's best this season
Calgary Flames Blogger • 
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