Projected Lines: CGY @NSH

Jan 16, 2023 - 9:33 PM

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Projected Lines

Calgary Flames versus Nashville Predators

Bridgestone Arena

Nashville, Tennessee

The Flames have come to the finish line of their five game road trip and have not suffered a regulation loss by carrying a 2-0-2 record over the first four games as the visitors. They’ll wrap it up tonight in Music City before heading back home.

Our projections start in the blue paint, where we’ll see a goalie swap.

Per Eric Francis of Sportsnet:

Backup Dan Vladar will head back to the pine after seeing two straight starts and Markstrom will see his first start since January 10th, at which point he was the starter in five straight games. He carries a 13-10-5 record overall with a 2.84 GAA and .893 Save Percentage on the season. Markstrom has allowed 3+ in three of his previous four games.

In other recent roster news, Dennis Gilbert and Radim Zohorna were sent back down to the AHL as of December 29th, but Zohorna was recalled one day later on December 30th. Other Wranglers making the trip down the hallway are Walker Duehr and Jakob Pelletier who were recalled on January 7th. With Zohorna heading back down the other way as of January 13th, this leaves the active roster at 22 for the time being.

Lineup Looks:

• 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 has been placed on retroactive Injured Reserve as of January 8th. The retroactive placement sees him technically eligible to return anytime now, it’s just dependent on the functionality and severity of the injury.
• D-Man Chris Tanev had missed four games since suffering a head injury against Montreal on December 12th. He made his return December 20th and skated on the second pair with Mackenzie Weegar and looks to remain there for the time being.
• Defender Oliver Kylington remains away on personal leave.
• Dennis Gilbert has been up and down like a roller coaster. The defender was sent back down to the Wranglers as of November 27th and recalled on December 18th, and spent a stint on IR before being recalled December 28th, then sent down again the next day.
• After being a highly published healthy scratch for three games this season, Milan Lucic will remain in the lineup and in the top six. Connor Mackey and Jakob Pelletier will be tonight’s healthy scratches.
• In the forward groupings, Adam Ruzicka doesn’t look to be headed back to the top line anytime soon after an earlier hot streak. Over the prior twenty-four games he has two goals and twelve points and has been held off the scoresheet in nine straight contests.
• Jonathan Huberdeau will stay in the top six but remain on the second line since being swapped with Dillon Dube. Huberdeau is hopefully rounding into form after tacking on twenty-one points in his last twenty-four games. His best performance was three assists against the Sharks on December 20th. He also scored the big GWG against the Kraken on December 28th, and chipped in two assists against Dallas on January 14th.

Projections:

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

FORWARD 1: Dube-Lindholm-Toffoli

FORWARD 2: Lucic-Kadri-Huberdeau

FORWARD 3: Mangiapane-Backlund-Coleman

FORWARD 4: Lewis-Ruzicka-Duehr

D1: Hanifin-Andersson

D2: Tanev-Weegar

D3: Zadorov-Stone

GOALTENDERS: Markstrom (starter), Vladar (backup)