Folks, there are some games – often weeknight games against Eastern Conference opponents – where the Saddledome lacks a bit of atmosphere. Well, that won’t be a problem on Thursday evening, as the Calgary Flames (10-6-3, 23 points) host Adam Fox and the New York Rangers (12-4-1, 25 points), and the building is sure to be loud. Well, whenever Fox handles the puck, at least.

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

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

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

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

For the third consecutive game, Dustin Wolf starts for the Flames, backed up by Dan Vladar. On one hand, Vladar hasn’t played since last Tuesday. On the other hand: Wolf has been flat-out brilliant for the Flames lately, so it makes sense to ride the hot hand – he’s arguably played well enough that it would be a bit silly to go to Vladar at this point. The projected extras are Joel Hanley, Tyson Barrie and Adam Klapka.

The Flames have allowed nine goals at five-on-five in November (through nine games), the fewest in the NHL. And they’ve allowed 17 goals overall in November, tied with New Jersey and Toronto for the league lead. They’ve only scored 13 five-on-five goals and 20 goals overall, but they’ve gotten really reliable goaltending and managed to score key goals at key times.

Are the Flames’ late-game heroics sustainable? Probably not. But the Flames have shown a willingness to play a certain style of hockey and stick to the program rather than cheat their system when they’re down in games. That’s a big step for a team that took too many shortcuts in previous seasons in similar situations and had games get away from them.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Chris Kreider – Mika Zibanejad – Reilly Smith
Artemi Panarin – Vincent Trocheck – Alexis Lafreniere
Will Cuylle – Jonny Brodzinski – Kaapo Kakko
Adam Edstrom – Sam Carrick – Jimmy Vesey

K’Andre Miller – Adam Fox
Ryan Lindgren – Jacob Trouba
Zac Jones – Braden Schneider

We’re projecting Igor Shesterkin to start in net, backed up by Jonathan Quick. The projected extras are Filip Chytil, Jake Leschyshyn and Chad Ruhwedel. (Chytil was thought to have a concussion, but he cleared testing and has rejoined the team.)

For newcomers to Flames fandom, Rangers blueliner Adam Fox was originally a 2016 third-round pick by the Flames. However, during his tenure at Harvard University he made it known to Flames management that he wasn’t too keen on signing in Calgary, so he was traded to Carolina as part of the Elias Lindholm/Noah Hanifin trade, and then subsequently traded to the Rangers by the Hurricanes for draft picks. But since Flames fans have a long memory, he gets booed every time he touches the puck on Saddledome ice. Some traditions are weird.

This is the third game of a four game western swing for the Blueshirts. They beat the Canucks by a 4-3 score on Tuesday. They’ve won three in a row and four of their last five. The Rangers have performed really well this season, and are good at even strength and both sides of special teams. They have good goaltending and depth across the board. They’re a really good hockey club, and a big challenge for the Flames.

The Flames are without Anthony Mantha.

The Rangers are healthy.

This is the first of two clashes between these teams. They’ll close out their season series at Madison Square Garden on Mar. 18.