After a dud of a performance on opening night, the Calgary Flames responded with a pair of victories.
While the Flames were far from perfect in both wins, they were impressive for different reasons.
On Saturday, the Flames erased an early 3-1 deficit against one of the league's best offensive teams, Winnipeg, en route to a 6-3 win.
They followed that up with a shutout win on the road against a potential Stanley Cup contender, albeit a beat up one, in the Anaheim Ducks.
Tonight they'll face another tough opponent as they're in Los Angeles to take on a Kings team that is off to a 2-0-0 start and has allowed just one goal thus far.
Here are the projected lineups:
Calgary
Johnny Gaudreau - Sean Monahan - Michael Ferland Matthew Tkachuk - Mikael Backlund - Michael Frolik Kris Versteeg - Sam Bennett - Jaromir Jagr Tanner Glass - Matt Stajan - Troy Brouwer/Curtis Lazar
Mark Giordano - Dougie Hamilton T.J. Brodie - Travis Hamonic Matt Bartkowski - Michael Stone
Mike Smith
Los Angeles (via DailyFaceoff.com)
Alex Iafallo - Anze Kopitar - Dustin Brown Tanner Pearson - Jeff Carter - Tyler Toffoli Andy Andreoff - Adrian Kempe - Mike Cammalleri Kyle Clifford - Nick Shore -Trevor Lewis
Derek Forbort - Drew Doughty Jake Muzzin - Christian Folin Kurtis MacDermid - Oscar Fatenberg
Jonathan Quick
Five things to watch:
1) The Pearson - Carter - Toffoli line has been excellent together in recent years and the beginning of this season has been no different. At 5v5, they're controlling ~65% of the attempts and chances. The Flames will have their hands full trying to slow them down.
2) Speaking of Toffoli, he leads the Kings in 5v5 shot attempts, shots, scoring chances and high-danger chances. He has a wicked shot and the Kings set him up to use it as much as possible. The defense *really* needs to key on him.
3) It's early, obviously, but the Flames have been leaky defensively thus far allowing more than 40 shots per 60 minutes of 5v5 play. They need to tighten up or the wins won't continue to come.
4) Jagr will make his Flames debut tonight. His presence gives the Flames three legitimate scoring lines, which will make life very difficult on teams with weak third pairings (like Los Angeles). Let's see if they can take advantage.
5) Lazar has more 5v5 scoring chances than the likes of Versteeg, Bennett, and Frolik, among others. The Flames need some of those guys to get going.
Puck drop is just after 10:30ET/8:30MT and can be seen on SNW and FS-W.