"It's always good to play against the best players," explained Elias Lindholm, who anchors the Flames' top trio with Matthew Tkachuk and the red-hot Johnny Hockey. "It's always a good challenge and obviously our line has been playing pretty well. So, for us, it's to keep doing what we're doing, keep playing in the o-zone as much as possible and try to wear the other team down like that.
"Our game is not going to change based on who we're playing against. I think us three, we play the same game over and over again, have fun out there and try to do the right things."
Lindholm, Gaudreau and Tkachuk have accounted for most of the Flames' offence this year, with No. 13 riding a pace that could see him achieve a new career high in points - and his first, ever, as part of the triple-digit club.
As a unit, their underlying numbers are flat-out dominant. They've out-scored the opposition 35-10, 5-on-5, while controlling more than 60% of possession, scoring chances and high-danger looks. Best of all, their minutes haven't been sheltered. Head Coach Darryl Sutter can easily deploy them in a power-on-power setting - like we may see tonight - or against the opponent's top checking unit.
Whatever the flavour, the trio has flourished.
"They've been great for us," said Andrew Mangiapane, who scored his team-leading 21st and 22nd goals of the season in last night's win trouncing of the Golden Knights. "They've been good defensively against those top guys and that leads to good offensive chances.
"And they're scoring.
"They're producing with the best of them and we're going to need that down the stretch from them."
On other side, Auston Matthews is having a year to remember. His 31 goals are second only to Leon Draisaitl and Chris Kreider - but on a per-game pace, no one is finding the net more.
His linemates Mitch Marner and Michael Bunting are on an absolute heater, with the former entering the night on an eight-game goal streak that includes back-to-back multi-tuck efforts.
Marner has 19 points in his last eight games, while Bunting - who's one of the game's great bargains at $950,000 - tallied his first-career NHL hat-trick back on Jan. 29 against the Red Wings.
That's a lot of offence on both sides.
We're in for a treat tonight.
"They're top-end players," Sutter said. "It's a totally different line than the Lindholm line. Auston Matthews is arguably the purest shooter or goal-scorer in the league and that's a big difference. He's a power guy when you look at it. And Marner is the whole package. He doesn't get enough credit. He's sort of like our Lindy where he doesn't get enough credit for the whole game that he plays. The way he manages pucks and makes plays and things like that.
"That's a big challenge for those two guys."
