Projected Lines: CGY @ COL

Projected Lines

Calgary Flames versus Colorado Avalanche

Ball Arena

Denver, Colorado

The Flames wrap up their three game roadie after previously matching that with three straight at home, and will be up for a challenge against the defending champs!

The Flames will make a switch in the blue paint as they try to get back on the winning track.

Per Eric Francis of Sportsnet:

Markstrom will sub in for Dan Vladar, after Number 80 saw back-to-back starts in a back-to-back at Arizona and Vegas. The Avalanche are on a back-to-back of their own, having won four straight games and are coming off a 5-1 drubbing of the Winnipeg Jets last night.

Vladar posted a .862 SV% in his last start in Vegas, and previously allowed five goals on twenty-four shots in an ugly loss to the rebuilding Red Wings last week, which was his second loss in as many starts. He posted a .792 Save Percentage in that “show me” contest against Detroit and a .786 against the Coyotes before the loss at VGK, so the net will swap back to Markstrom.

Markstrom has had his own struggles, carrying a record of 15-14-7 on the season alongside a 2.93 GAA and an .889 Save Percentage into tonight.

Rasmus Andersson was day-to-day after his traffic accident suffered in Detroit. Injuries sustained caused him to miss three straight games, and Dennis Gilbert had subbed in for him since the injury. Rasmus made his return in the Detroit rematch game on February 16th and remains in.

Gilbert, meanwhile, has been swapped back in for Michael Stone since February 20th, as Stone was placed in Injured Reserve for an undisclosed LBI the following day. Walker Duehr was called up at the same time and will play his third straight game tonight.

Lineup Looks:

• Jakob Pelletier will stay up for his 14th career game of NHL action, and finally found the scoresheet on February 11th against Buffalo with his first career NHL goal, and again on February 22nd in Arizona. Pelletier was otherwise pointless though his first six contests as a callup, but has two straight two-point games.
• Brett Ritchie exited the New Year’s Eve game against Vancouver with what appeared to be a wrist injury. He saw a specialist for it on January 3rd and was placed on retroactive Injured Reserve as of January 8th, but was activated on January 27th. He made his return to the roster on February 11th at Buffalo, but looks to sit out today for the fourth straight contest.
• Defender Oliver Kylington remains away on personal leave, and has not been placed on LTIR as of yet.
• After being a highly published healthy scratch for three games this season, Milan Lucic will remain in the lineup but has finally left the top six, skating back on the fourth line recently. The healthy scratches look to be Brett Ritchie, Connor Mackey, and Adam Ruzicka.
• Adam Ruzicka looks to be back in the press box for the third straight contest after coming back in for three straight games and then missing 3 more after that as a healthy scratch. He saw two games of action playing in Lindholm’s absence on February 18th and staying in again on the 20th. Over the prior thirty-five games Ruzicka has actually played in, he’s got just two goals and twelve points.
• Jonathan Huberdeau will stay in the top six but remain on the second line since being swapped with Dillon Dube. Huberdeau is still looking to round into form after tacking on 29 points in his last 39 games, but might be developing chemistry with rookie Jakob Pelletier. His best performance so far was three assists against the Sharks on December 20th, and he posted two assists including one on the OT winner against NYR on February 18th.

Projections:

Barring any major changes when lineups are submitted, they are projected as follows:

FORWARDS:

Dube-Lindholm-Toffoli

Pelletier-Kadri-Huberdeau

Mangiapane-Backlund-Coleman

Lucic-Lewis-Duehr

DEFENSE:

Hanifin-Andersson

Tanev-Weegar

Zadorov-Gilbert

NETMINDERS:

Markstrom (starter) Vladar (backup)