The National Hockey League’s regular season can seem like a marathon. With the All-Star Break complete, the final sprint begins. This is the first of 32 games remaining on the Calgary Flames (26-19-5, 57 points) schedule to determine if the make the post-season and, if so, who they play. They begin the stretch drive with a big test in the form of the defending Stanley Cup Champions, the St. Louis Blues (30-12-8, 68 points).

The game begins just after 7 p.m. MT on Sportsnet West and Sportsnet 960 The Fan.

Projected lines, via Daily Faceoff:

Cam Talbot starts for the Flames, backed up by David Rittich (who will start tomorrow against Edmonton). Today’s projected scratches are Tobias Rieder, Michael Stone and Zac Rinaldo. Buddy Robinson makes his season debut for the Flames after his recall a couple days ago.

The Flames are rolling out four lines that look fairly balanced. Derek Ryan jumps up to play on the second line, giving them a guy that can take strong side face-offs on either side of the ice. The other three lines are stuck with one center apiece, but perhaps this speaks to the club’s desire to kick-start Johnny Gaudreau by making sure he has the puck more often than he has in the recent past.

Projected lines, via Daily Faceoff:

Jordan Binnington starts for the Blues, backed up by Jake Allen. The scratches against Vancouver were Carl Gunnarsson and Mackenzie MacEachern, so potentially they may rotate in tonight.

The Blues are one of the top teams in the NHL. They won some shiny trophy last summer, but they’ve been better and more consistent than last season’s edition. They lost a tight 3-1 decision in Vancouver last night, but they were pretty good and now will have shaken the All-Star Break rust off. They’ll be a tough out for the Flames this evening.

The Flames are without D Juuso Valimaki (ACL surgery).

The Blues are missing F Vladimir Tarasenko (shoulder) and F Sammy Blais (wrist).

This is the final instalment of this season series. The Flames lost to the Blues 3-2 (in OT) and 5-0 (in regulation) in their prior two meetings.

Here are some key Twitter follows for today’s game: