Following one of their worst showings of the season vs Toronto, the Calgary Flames rebounded nicely with a convincing win over the Arizona Coyotes on home soil.
They'll be looking to duplicate that performance against another Western Conference bottom-feeder tonight when they host the Edmonton Oilers in this season's second edition of the Battle of Alberta.
The Oilers have won just 10 times in 26 games and are currently playing without Cam Talbot, Andrej Sekera, and Adam Larsson so there's not much reason to be optimistic things will get much better in the immediate future.
Still, they have one of the few guys who can win hockey games by themselves in Connor McDavid and are desperate for points. The Flames can't take them lightly.
Here are the projected lineups:
Calgary
Johnny Gaudreau - Sean Monahan - Michael Ferland Matthew Tkachuk - Mikael Backlund - Michael Frolik Sam Bennett - Mark Jankowski - Jaromir Jagr Garnet Hathaway - Matt Stajan - Troy Brouwer
Mark Giordano - Dougie Hamilton T.J. Brodie - Travis Hamonic Brett Kulak - Michael Stone
Mike Smith
Edmonton (via DailyFaceoff.com)
Milan Lucic - Connor McDavid - Jesse Puljujarvi Patrick Maroon - Ryan Nugent-Hopkins - Anton Slepyshev Drake Caggiula - Leon Draisaitl - Ryan Strome Jujhar Khaira - Mark Letestu - Zack Kassian
Darnell Nurse - Kris Russell Oscar Klefbom - Matt Benning Yohann Auvitu - Eric Gryba
Laurent Brossoit
What to watch:
1) Brossoit owns a woeful .876 save percentage on the year and hasn't picked up a win in seven appearances. He's clearly struggling so the Flames should funnel pucks at him every chance they get.
2) Edmonton has balanced their lines and now have a top-line caliber center on each of their top three. It'll be interesting to see if Glen Gulutzan targets specific matchups or, outside of 3M vs McDavid, just rolls his lines. McDavid, Draisaitl, and RNH rank 1st, 2nd, and 4th on the team in 5v5 chances so it's a pick your poison kind of deal.
3) The Oilers have three defensemen (Nurse, Klefbom, and Auvitu) inside the top-10 in terms of shot attempts/60 and four in the top-25 (Benning being the other). They shoot from the point a *ton* so the Flames will need to watch for trailers jumping into the play to create another layer of offense.
4) After failing to record a 5v5 chance in his first three games, Jankowski has recorded at least one in 14 consecutive games and is the team's leader in chances per 60 minutes. He's a legitimate offensive threat on the 3rd line, which is something the Flames really needed.
5) The Oilers rank 30th in penalty differential at minus-20, meaning the Flames' power play should get their fair share of opportunities to go to work. If they do, that could be trouble for Edmonton as Calgary ranks 7th in expected goals for/60 while up a man.
Puck drop is just after 10:00 eastern and can be seen on SN and CBC.
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