Flames at Blues preview

FLAMES (21-10-2) at BLUES (12-14-4)

3 p.m. ET; FS-MW, SNW, NHL.TV

The Game

The Calgary Flames will seek their eighth win in the past nine games when they play the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center on Sunday.
The Flames play the second of a back-to-back after defeating the Minnesota Wild 2-1 on Saturday. Matthew Tkachuk, who has nine points (two goals, seven assists) the past six games, scored the tiebreaking goal in the third period.
Flames defenseman Mark Giordano also scored Saturday, and has nine points (two goals, seven assists) in a four-game point streak.
Defenseman Joel Edmundson will return to the lineup for St. Louis. Edmundson said he missed the past two games with a variety of injuries, including a hand injury sustained against the Vancouver Canucks last Sunday.
The Blues, who wrap up a four-game homestand, will be looking for their first three-game winning streak of the season.

Players to watch

Flames forward Johnny Gaudreau has 23 points (seven goals, 16 assists) the past 14 games.
Blues forward Pat Maroon will be playing in his 400th NHL game.

They said it

"I saw the Blues had a huge win over the Avalanche [Friday] night, so they're going to be riding a high from last game. I think it's just going to be up to us. It's another afternoon game. Wake up, go and play. It's a nice recipe so we'll be ready." -- Flames forward Matthew Tkachuk
"I'm feeling a lot better. Finally nice to be back in the lineup so I'm pretty excited to get back out there with the guys."-- Blues defenseman Joel Edmundson

Flames projected lineup

Johnny Gaudreau -- Sean Monahan -- Elias Lindholm
Matthew Tkachuk -- Mikael Backlund -- James Neal
Austin Czarnik -- Mark Jankowski -- Alan Quine
Kerby Rychel -- Derek Ryan -- Garnet Hathaway
Mark Giordano -- TJ Brodie
Noah Hanifin -- Travis Hamonic
Oliver Kylington -- Rasmus Andersson
David Rittich
Mike Smith
Scratched:Dalton Prout
Injured:Juuso Valimaki (lower body), Michael Stone (blood clot), Michael Frolik (lower body), Sam Bennett (upper body)

Blues projected lineup

Alexander Steen -- Ryan O'Reilly -- Vladimir Tarasenko
Jaden Schwartz -- Brayden Schenn -- David Perron
Pat Maroon -- Tyler Bozak -- Robert Thomas
Jordan Nolan -- Ivan Barbashev -- Oskar Sundqvist
Joel Edmundson -- Colton Parayko
Jay Bouwmeester -- Robert Bortuzzo
Vince Dunn -- Chris Butler
Jake Allen
Jordan Binnington
Scratched:Jordan Schmaltz
Injured:Alex Pietrangelo (hand/wrist), Robby Fabbri (shoulder), Carl Gunnarsson (wrist)

Status report

Flames coach Bill Peters is hopeful Backlund and Smith will be available. If Smith is, he could start. If he isn't, Gillies could make his first start of the season after Rittich made 34 saves Saturday. ... Czarnik could play after being a healthy scratch Saturday, and Prout played because the Flames went with seven defensemen. ... The Blues assigned forward Zach Sanford to San Antonio of the American Hockey League on Saturday.

Stat pack

Monahan has 19 points (11 goals, eight assists) the past 14 games. ... Perron has two hat tricks against the Flames, including Oct. 11 in a 5-3 Blues win.