Arizona Coyotes and Calgary Flames Preview

The Arizona Coyotes are taking on the Calgary Flames tonight at Gila River Arena at 7 p.m. This will be the sixth and final game of the Coyotes’ longest homestand of the season, which they are currently 2-3-0 on. A win tonight will make it a respectable .500 six-game span.

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This will be game four of a five game series against Calgary this season. So far, it’s not been a good series for Arizona as Calgary has won every meeting so far this year. Calgary is sitting 11 points ahead of Arizona in the Pacific Division and have outscored Arizona 13-5 in the previous three meetings.

Arizona is coming off of a disappointing loss to Pacific Division rival San Jose Sharks on Tuesday and will look to get back in the win column. Arizona has been playing much better as of late but is still having trouble winning more consistently.

With the Devan Dubnyk trade last night, Mike Smith is the likely starter in goal tonight. One of the reasons Dubnyk was traded was so Mike Smith can get some more consistent playing time as he looks to salvage his below average season.

This will be the second stop of a five game road trip for Calgary. They have been a surprise team in the league this year as they are very much alive in the playoff hunt. Fortunately for Arizona, Calgary has been playing inconsistently as they come into tonight’s game.

After winning four in a row, they went on an eight-game losing streak, then won three in a row but lost their next three consecutive games. Their most recent game resulted in a 1-0 win over Vancouver.

Hopefully for Arizona, the Flames’ inconsistency continues tonight as they look to avoid a season sweep with only one game left in the series.

PreGame Notes:

• Shane Doan will not play tonight due to an undisclosed injury. He left the game against San Jose and did not return.
• Arizona called up Mike Lee from the ECHL to take Dubnyk’s back up role for tonight.
• Brandon Gormley has been placed on IR.
• Martin Hanzal will return to the lineup tonight.
• Philip Samuelsson will make his Coyotes debut tonight.