Red Wings-Flames Morning Skate, Preview, How to Watch

Time: 9:00 PM EST

Place: Scotiabank Saddledome

TV: FS-D, TVA Sports, SN-W, ESPN+

Radio: 97.1 FM The Ticket/1270 AM

Flames Blog: Matchsticks and Gasoline

Is that, is that a winning streak I see? Well, not quite yet, but the Red Wings have won back-to-back games for the 1st time since Nov 28/Dec 1 and have a chance tonight to win three-straight for the first time since November 13 when they trounced Arizona to take their winning streak then to four. Things have changed a lot since early November, but the Red Wings still aren’t giving up on the season yet. Their back-to-back wins have been impressive, over both Minnesota and Anaheim, and the names you want to see are a big reason for those wins. Bertuzzi had a hat trick vs. the Wild, Nyquist has 3-points the last two, Larkin has four assists, Mantha two points, etc. etc. You know this team isn’t making the playoffs, but seeing success from the future cornerstones of this franchise (well except Nyquist, who hopefully lands us a 1st rounder) is exactly what you want to see down the stretch

Well the Calgary Flames are simply dominating this year. They sit atop the West with 65 points, which is also good for 2nd in the league (a cool 9 points behind Tampa... yikes). They are led by probably the front-runner for the Hart Trophy currently in Johnny Gaudreau. He has a 9-game point streak going where he has 20!!! points (9 G, 11 A) and has shot himself up to 2nd in the league in points with 71. They have also won 8 of their last 11 and haven’t dropped back-to-back games since December 22 (they lost this past Wednesday night vs. Buffalo). He’s taking the league by storm and this Flames team is dangerous. The Wings need to be careful or Calgary could easily burn them tonight (Pun absolutely intended).

Projected Lines

Red Wings

Bertuzzi-Larkin-Nyquist
Vanek-Nielsen-Mantha
Helm-LGD-AA
Abby-Ehn-Frk

Kronwall-Green
Ericsson-Hronek
Dekeyser-Cholowski

Howard
Bernier

Flames

Gaudreau-Monahan-Lindholm
Tkachuck-Backlund-Frolik
Bennett-Jankowski-Czarnik
Mangiapane-Ryan-Hathaway

Giordano-Brodie
Hanifin-Andersson
Kylington-Prout

Smith
Rittich