Late Season Landmine: Flames-Ducks Game Day Preview, Notes, How to Watch

The Calgary Flames are back in action tonight in what will be such a soft, easy slow pitch of a matchup against a tired Anaheim Ducks squad that you have to wonder if it will end up being one of those games.

March 26: 3-1 loss to the Blackhawks.

February 16: 6-3 loss to the Sharks

January 25: 5-2 loss to the Blue Jackets.

It appears to be intrinsic to the 2023-2024 Calgary Flames experience that, from time to time, the team and fans receive a gut shot in the form of a loss to a bottom feeder. Let’s dig into the game day preview!

Calgary Flames (34-34-5, 73 pts) vs Anaheim Ducks (24-47-4, 52 pts)          

Last Ten: Calgary (3-7-0) Anaheim (1-8-1)          

Time: 7:00 p.m. Mountain Standard Time.           

TV: Sportsnet One, Sportsnet West, Bally Sports SoCal, ESPN+

Schedule Win?

The Ducks truly have the odds stacked against them tonight. Rookie head coach Greg Cronin’s Anaheim squad have lost their last five and finish out a three-game Western Canada road trip this evening. Veteran bruiser Radko Gudas has been dealing with an injury for at least the last three weeks and did not join the Ducks for this trip.

The Flames don’t look much better in terms of results of late. While the Ducks lost five in a row since March 24, the Flames have gone 1-3-0. Their sole win coming against the LA Kings on Saturday.

Rest Easy

While the Flames have a tendency to drop gimme games, they seem to handle the Ducks well enough in the modern era. The team is 4-1-0 against Anaheim since the start of 2022-2023. The Ducks’ sole win in the last two seasons came on March 10, 2023; a backbreaking loss down the stretch that involved Calgary native Brett Leason scoring the go-ahead goal in the late second and former Flame Derek Grant planting the knife with an empty netter in the third period.

Looking for a Bounceback

The Flames will be starting Jacob Markstrom tonight. Like the rest of the Flames, Markstrom struggled through March and missed time due to a mystery injury. The 34-year-old posted a record of 3-4-0 and a save percentage of .874 on the month.

Calgary Flames Projected Lineup

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

Weegar-Miromanov
Hanley-Andersson
Kylington-Pachal

Markstrom

Anaheim Ducks Projected Lineup

Killorn-Carlsson-Terry
Zegras-McTavish-Strome
Vatrano-Lundestrom-Silfverberg
Meyers-Groulx-Leason

Fowler-Zellweger
Lacombe-Lindstrom
Vaakainen-Lageson

Dostal
Gibson

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