After a couple days without games – for the first time in almost a month – the Calgary Flames (8-6-3, 19 points) are back in action! And they’re beginning a homestand when they host the Nashville Predators (5-9-3, 13 points), who lost in overtime in Edmonton on Thursday night. Can the Flames bounce back from a loss in Vancouver?

Today’s broadcast begins at 7 p.m. MT on Sportsnet West and Sportsnet 960 The Fan.

Projected lines, via Sportsnet’s Derek Wills:

Jonathan Huberdeau – Connor Zary – Yegor Sharangovich
Martin Pospisil – Nazem Kadri – Andrei Kuzmenko
Blake Coleman – Mikael Backlund – Matt Coronato
Ryan Lomberg – Justin Kirkland – Kevin Rooney

Kevin Bahl – Rasmus Andersson
MacKenzie Weegar – Daniil Miromanov
Jake Bean – Brayden Pachal

Dustin Wolf is projected as the starting goalie, backed up by Dan Vladar. The projected extras are Adam Klapka, Tyson Barrie and Joel Hanley.

The Flames made a couple big changes at Thursday’s practice. We’ve discussed elsewhere that Connor Zary has been moved to centre from the wing.  But the Flames have also tried to jump-start their 28th-place power play with a few changes. On Tuesday in Vancouver, the first unit featured Huberdeau, Sharangovich, Kadri, Coronato and Weegar. The second unit had Backlund, Zary, Kuzmenko, Barrie and Andersson. On Thursday, Zary joined PP1, Kadri was bumped to PP2, and Pospisil replaced Barrie on PP2. We’ll see if the changes result in more goals, but the coaching staff obviously had to try something a bit different to get things going on special teams.

Here’s how the Predators lined up in Edmonton on Thursday night:

Filip Forsberg – Ryan O’Reilly – Steven Stamkos
Jonathan Marchessault – Colton Sissons – Gustav Nyquist
Luke Evangelista – Juuso Parssinen – Philip Tomasino
Cole Smith – Michael McCarron – Zachary L’Heureux

Brady Skjei – Roman Josi
Jeremy Lauzon – Alexandre Carrier
Marc del Gaizo – Luke Schenn

Given that Scott Wedgewood started in Edmonton, we’ll likely see Juuse Saros play in Calgary. Thursday’s extras were (Forever A Flame) Mark Jankowski and AHL call-up Adam Wilsby.

The Predators made it to overtime in Edmonton, and the point they gained nudged them out of last place in the NHL’s overall standings. But they’ve won three times in their last 10 games and are desperately looking for traction. They’re going to be scrappy and playing with urgency. They’re not a bad team on paper, they’ve just drastically under-performed. Let’s see how the Flames can handle a desperate opponent.

The Flames are without Anthony Mantha.

The Predators are without Spencer Stastney and Tommy Novak.

This is the first of three Flames/Predators match-ups of the season. They’ll face off again in Nashville on Dec. 10 before closing out the season series in Calgary on Jan. 4.