Five things to watch when the Calgary Flames play host to the Tampa Bay Lightning:
1. 3M vs TB1 The 3M line did a number on Vegas' top line the other night winning the shot attempt battle 16-5 and out-chancing them 9-3 in ~10:30 of head-to-head time at 5v5.
Tonight they'll be faced with another tough challenge going up against Tampa Bay's top line.
They have slowed down a bit following a torrid start to the year – it'd be impossible not to – but they've still been very good controlling ~53% of the shot attempts and out-scoring their opponents by seven at 5v5.
They possess as much raw talent as any line in hockey so it only takes a couple chances to make opponents pay. The 3M line is going to have to be on its game again.
2. Potential goaltending duel If goaltending is your thing, you'll probably want to tune into tonight's game.
Andrei Vasilevskiy is leading the pack in the race for the Vezina Trophy while Mike Smith has been as good as anyone over the last couple months.
Knowing that, it should be no surprise these two are atop the leaderboard in 5v5 save percentage on the year.
3. Power play struggles While down a man, the Lightning rank 2nd in Expected Goals Against/60 – meaning they don't give up many chances – and they have Vasilevskiy between the pipes to hold down the fort when they do. The Flames' power play has been a disaster for a while now and I'm not betting on tonight being any different.
4. Bottom-6 production Players featuring in tonight's bottom-6 have combined to score just four goals over Calgary's last 10 games. With the power play pretty much useless these days, the Flames need all hands on deck in order to score enough to win. That's not the case right now.
5. Shooting from the point Over Tampa Bay's last 10 games, Anton Stralman is the only defenseman on the roster who ranks top-5 on the team in 5v5 shot attempts (he's tied for 5th).
During that same span Dougie Hamilton ranks 1st, Travis Hamonic is tied for 2nd, Mark Giordano is tied for 5th, and T.J. Brodie as well as Brett Kulak are not far behind.
Either the Flames are making a concentrated effort to get their pointmen involved, or they're struggling to get the puck into dangerous areas and settling for outside shots. Either way, it clearly isn't leading to many goals.
Here are the projected lineups:
Calgary
Johnny Gaudreau - Sean Monahan - Micheal Ferland Matthew Tkachuk - Mikael Backlund - Michael Frolik Sam Bennett - Mark Jankowski - Troy Brouwer Curtis Lazar - Matt Stajan - Garnet Hathaway
Mark Giordano - Dougie Hamilton T.J. Brodie - Travis Hamonic Brett Kulak - Michael Stone
Mike Smith
Tampa Bay Lightning (via DailyFaceoff.com)
Vladislav Namestnikov - Steven Stamkos - Nikita Kucherov Yanni Gourde - Brayden Point - Tyler Johnson Chris Kunitz - Cedric Paquette - Ryan Callahan Alex Killorn - Matthew Peca - Michael Bournival
Victor Hedman - Jake Dotchin Mikhail Sergachev - Anton Stralman Braydon Coburn - Dan Girardi
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Puck drop is just after 9:00 eastern and can be seen on SN360 and SUN.