Defining “Unacceptable” – Flames-Blackhawks Game Day Preview, Notes, How to Watch

Amid a discouraging three game slide and facing off against a team that consistently has proven to have the Flames’ number, Ryan Huska’s crew will be looking to cold-start their offence against the Chicago Blackhawks tonight at the United Center. Here are some key stats, storylines to follow, and projected lineups prior to tonight’s game.

Calgary Flames (33-32-5, 71 pts) vs Chicago Blackhawks (20-46-5, 45 pts)          

Last Ten: Calgary (3-7-0) Chicago (5-5-0)          

Time: 6:30 p.m. Mountain Standard Time.           

TV: Sportsnet One, Sportsnet West, NBC Sports Chicago, ESPN+

Avoiding Discomfort

The Blackhawks and Flames have a unique relationship over the past two seasons. Despite Calgary consistently holding a higher place in the standings and Chicago in a state of all-in rebuild mode, the Blackhawks roster seems to be fully aware that they can beat the Flames on any given night.

Over five games against each other since the beginning of the 2022-2023 regular season, the Flames have gone 1-3-1 against the Blackhawks. Their only win came on Jan. 27 of this season in a match requiring goaltender Jacob Markstrom standing on his head to seal a 1-0 victory in the Scotiabank Saddledome.

A win tonight would at least keep the media off of the players in terms of beating teams around the bottom of the standings.

Flames Flickering

The Calgary Flames have a three-way tie for top scorer amid this current three game losing streak. AJ Greer, Brayden Pachal, and Kevin Rooney lead the team with two points apiece since March 18.

Three losses in a row makes the Flames the only team to not record a point since that date. Of note, the Flames penalty kill has a 57.1% success rate. Good for 30th in the NHL.

Individual Slumps

Poor even strength goal differentials during this streak include:

Jonathan Huberdeau: -5
Yegor Sharangovich: -4
Oliver Kylington: -4
Rasmus Andersson: -5
Nazem Kadri: -5

Eight other players post a -2 or worse. The only players in the green are AJ Greer (+3), Brayden Pachal (+2), Kevin Rooney (+3), Dryden Hunt (+2), Joel Hanley (+1) and Matthew Coronato (+1).

Calgary Flames Projected Lineup

Zary-Kadri-Pospisil
Mangiapane-Backlund-Coleman
Huberdeau-Sharangovich-Kuzmenko
Greer-Rooney-Hunt  

Kylington-Andersson
Weegar-Miromanov
Hanley-Pachal

Markstrom
Wolf

Chicago Blackhawks Projected Lineup

Donato-Bedard-Kurashev
Foligno-TJohnson-Raddysh
Entwistle-Athanasiou-Reichel
Slaggert-Dickinson-Anderson

Vlasic-Jones
Korchinski-Megna
Kaiser-Zaitsev

Mrazek
Soderblom

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