Projected Lines: CGY @ VGK

Feb 24, 2023 - 1:43 AM

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Projected Lines

Calgary Flames versus Vegas Golden Knights

T-Mobile Arena

Las Vegas, Nevada

The Flames go back-to-back in the desert and will swap arid Arizona for the bright lights of Las Vegas. Our projections start in the blue paint, where their netminder will also go back-to-back!

Per Pat Steinberg of Sportsnet 960:

Vladar had a light workload against the Coyotes last night, stopping 11 of only 14 total shots faced. All three goals were scored against him in the middle frame, and he ended the night with a .786 Save Percentage. In his previous start, Vladar 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. Dan was expected to get his shot at starting a few more games due to Jacob Markstrom’s continuing struggles, and it looks like they’ll give him another go despite posting a .792 Save Percentage in that “show me” contest against Detroit and a .786 last night.

Dan carries an overall record of 12-6-4 on the season, alongside an .896 SV% and a Goals Against Average of 2.86

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.

Lineup Looks:

• Jakob Pelletier will stay up for his 13th 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.
• 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 third 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 second 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 28 points in his last 38 games. 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:

Vladar (starter) Markstrom (backup)