After a rough four game road trip that saw them capture one of a possible eight points, the Calgary Flames (12-9-4, 28 points) are back at home for the bulk of December. They begin a stretch of seven out of nine games on home ice on Tuesday evening when they host the Columbus Blue Jackets (11-9-3, 25 points), who they faced (and lost to) on Friday afternoon. It’s sure to be an emotional evening, as the Flames (and their fans) pay tribute to Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau with several members of the Gaudreau family in attendance.

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

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Jonathan Huberdeau – Nazem Kadri – Martin Pospisil
Blake Coleman – Connor Zary – Walker Duehr
Yegor Sharangovich – Mikael Backlund – Matt Coronato
Ryan Lomberg – Kevin Rooney – Jakob Pelletier

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

We’re projecting Dan Vladar to start in net, backed up by Dustin Wolf. The projected extras are Joel Hanley, Tyson Barrie and Andrei Kuzmenko. It’s shaping up to feature the season debuts of Walker Duehr and Jakob Pelletier, both recalled on Monday after tearing it up in the American Hockey League with the Wranglers. Between Pelletier, Zary and Coronato, the Flames will have three recent first-round picks in their lineup – and this makes it four of the past five first-rounders to have played games with the club this season. That’s fun!

The Flames are a weird team this year. They have one of the best home records in the league, winning nine of 12. But they’re a rough road team, winning three of 13. They’ll need to figure out their road foibles at some point, but at the very least their strong home record is giving them a bit of wiggle room while they do that.

Keep an eye on special teams: the penalty kill has been rough lately, and they’ll need to tidy things up if the Flames want to have success. Well, that and they’ll need to take fewer penalties.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Dmitri Voronkov – Sean Monahan – Kirill Marchenko
Cole Sillinger – Adam Fantilli – Kent Johnson
Zach Aston-Reese – Justin Danforth – Mathieu Olivier
James van Riemsdyk – Sean Kuraly – Kevin Labanc

Zach Werenski – Dante Fabbro
Ivan Provorov – Damon Severson
Jake Christiansen – Jordan Harris

We’re projecting Elvis Merzlikins to start in net, backed up by Daniil Tarasov. The projected extras are Jack Johnson and Mikael Pyyhtia. This is just the third time Sean Monahan has played in the Saddledome as a visitor: he had two assists with Montreal in his first visit in 2022, and then had a hat trick with Winnipeg back in February in his most recent trip. In other words: keep an eye on #23.

After a rough start, fuelled in part by some injury woes, the Jackets have started to get some momentum going. They’ve won six of their last 10 games and have combined some fun youth along with some reliable veterans. (There may not be a more consistent defender in the NHL than Werenski.) If the Jackets can keep things rolling along, we wouldn’t bet against them making the post-season – or at the very least, making the playoff race really interesting down the stretch.

The Flames are without Anthony Mantha and Justin Kirkland.

The Blue Jackets are without Erik Gudbranson, Boone Jenner, Gavin Brindley and Yegor Chinakhov.

This is the finale of this season series. Columbus beat the Flames back on Friday afternoon.