Flames make several line changes to forwards and defensive pairs

Calgary Flames head coach Ryan Huska is continuing to experiment with his lines post trade deadline.

The Flames had nothing going this past weekend, falling to the Florida Panthers by a 5-1 final on Saturday before losing 7-2 to the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday. Huska is looking to spark his group ahead of tonight’s outing versus the Colorado Avalanche, making several changes both up front and on the back end.

#Flames projected tonight vs. Colorado:

Pelletier-Kadri-Pospisil
Mangiapane-Backlund-Coleman
Huberdeau-Sharangovich-Kuzmenko
Hunt-Rooney-Coronato
 
Kylington-Andersson
Weegar-Miromanov
Hanley-Pachal

Markstrom

— Pat Steinberg (@Fan960Steinberg) March 12, 2024

Martin Pospisil has been promoted to first-line duties alongside Nazem Kadri and Jakob Pelletier. The 24-year-old missed the last three games due to a suspension for a hit-from-behind on Seattle Kraken’s Vince Dunn. He and Kadri have spent plenty of time together this season on a line with Connor Zary, who is currently on the injured reserve.

The second line of Mikael Backlund, Blake Coleman, and Andrew Mangiapane will stay intact, while Andrei Kuzmenko will drop to the third line alongside Jonathan Huberdeau and Yegor Sharangovich. Rookie Matt Coronato will be demoted to the fourth line with Kevin Rooney and Dryden Hunt, while Walker Duehr will come out of the lineup as a healthy scratch.

On the back end, Rasmus Andersson and MacKenzie Weegar have been split up after two rough games as a pairing. Instead, Andersson will play with Oliver Kylington, while Weegar will be beside recently acquired Daniil Miromanov. Joel Hanley and Brayden Pachal will play together on the third pairing.

Markstrom, who was on the bench in the Flames’ most recent loss to the ‘Canes, will be back between the pipes tonight. He’ll be looking for a bounce-back performance after giving up five goals on 31 shots in Saturday’s loss to the Panthers.

If the Flames have any shot to get into the playoffs, they will need to start stringing wins together in a hurry. They currently sit eight points shy of the Vegas Golden Knights for the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference and have just 18 games remaining on their schedule.

Tonight’s outing marks a difficult task, as they are set to take on one of the league’s best in the Colorado Avalanche beginning at 7 pm MT. The Avs have been red hot as of late, as they are currently riding a three-game winning streak and are 7-2-1 over their last 10.

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