Battle of the Beleaguered: Flames-Avalanche Game Day Preview, Notes, How to Watch

With only one win in four games 11 days into December, pressure is on Ryan Huska’s Calgary Flames to get back into the win column with face off against the suddenly-sapped Colorado Avalanche. Here is your game day preview.

Calgary Flames (11-13-3, 25 pts) vs Colorado Avalanche (16-9-2, 34 pts)   

Time: 7:30 p.m. Mountain Standard Time.    

TV: Sportsnet One, Sportsnet West, ESPN

-Nazem Kadri has overtaken Elias Lindholm for team lead in points (18). The 33-year-old also leads the team in assists (12).

Blake Coleman and Elias Lindholm are tied for most goals on the team (7).

-Expected starter Daniel Vladar sports a 4-3-1 record, a 3.45 goals against average and a .877 save percentage.

Game Day Hits

Special Teams

Offensive Coach Marc Savard continues his quest to get the Flames power play up and running. Zero goals in three games last week. The penalty kill units generated two goals and were scored against only once over that time for a 116.7 net PK%.

Cornered Animal

Much like Calgary, Colorado has earned only one win on the month. Their power play is running at 0% over five December games contributing to a 1-3-1 record. Jared Bednar’s Avalanche play their fourth of a five-game road trip tonight.  Their PK unit has killed only 66.7, or a third, of their penalties this month.

Not done reading? Marc Dumont digs into the goalie market and breaks down the top four teams looking for a solution in net.

Calgary Flames Projected Lineup  

Mangiapane-Lindholm-Sharangovich  

Zary-Kadri-Coronato  

Huberdeau-Backlund-Coleman  

Greer-Ruzicka-Dube  

Weegar-Andersson  

Hanifin-Tanev  

Solovyov-Gilbert  

Vladar

Wolf 

Colorado Avalanche Projected Lineup  

Drouin-MacKinnon-O’Connor

Nichushkin-Rantanen-Tatar

Wood-Colton-Kiviranta

Cogliano-Johansen-MacDermid

Toews-Makar

Byram-Manson

Johnson-Malinski

Prosvetov