After a bit of a delay, the Calgary Flames (19-14-7, 45 points) will hit the midway point of their 2024-25 schedule on Saturday night. And they’ll do so with a big test in the form of the visiting Los Angeles Kings (24-10-5, 53 points), playing on the second half of a back-to-back after beating Winnipeg on Friday night. Can the Flames close out the first half with a victory? Or will the Kings flummox the Flames?

Tonight’s broadcast begins at 8 p.m. MT on Sportsnet’s national feed, CBC, City TV and Sportsnet 960 The Fan.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

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

Kevin Bahl – Rasmus Andersson
Joel Hanley – MacKenzie Weegar
Jake Bean – Brayden Pachal

Based on morning skate, Dustin Wolf will start, backed up by Dan Vladar. Their projected extras are Daniil Miromanov, Tyson Barrie and Rory Kerins. This is the first game of a stretch where the Flames will play five times over eight days – with travel – so we suspect you’ll see everybody in the lineup soon enough.

Through 40 games, the Flames are actually pretty good. Their 200-foot game has been quite good at five-on-five, and they’ve been pretty good at sticking with the program in games and just wearing down their opposition with their grinding playing style. They don’t have a lot of margin for error, but they’re aware of this, and you can make an argument that their level of self-awareness has made them a really tough opponent for the league’s better teams this season.

The Flames will be without Connor Zary for the next little while. And while they’ll miss his dynamic offensive presence, it could provide a bit of a second chance to players like Yegor Sharangovich and Andrei Kuzmenko who have struggled to score goals lately.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Alex Turcotte – Anze Kopitar – Adrian Kempe
Trevor Moore – Quinton Byfield – Warren Foegele
Kevin Fiala – Phillip Danault – Alex Laferriere
Tanner Jeannot – Trevor Lewis

Mikey Anderson – Vladislav Gavrikov
Jacob Moverare – Jordan Spence
Andreas Englund – Brandt Clarke
Kyle Burroughs

After backing up in Winnipeg, we’re projecting David Rittich to start in net, backed up by Darcy Kuemper. Friday’s extras were Akil Thomas and Samuel Helenius, so we’ll see if the Kings make any changes in the back-to-back situation.

The Kings are eight points up on the Flames (the best non-playoff team in the West) and are seven points up on the Canucks (who sit outside the three Pacific Division playoff spots). They’re in a pretty comfortable spot right now, but if the post-season began today they’d be lining up against Edmonton… the team that’s had their number in the playoffs the past few years. The Kings are probably looking up at Vegas in first place and thinking “Okay, if we catch them we can avoid the Oilers in the first round…”

Keep an eye on the Kings in the second half of the season.

The Flames are without Anthony Mantha, Justin Kirkland and Connor Zary.

The Kings are without Drew Doughty and Joel Edmundson.

This is the second of three meetings between these clubs this season. The Flames beat the Kings 3-1 in Calgary back on Nov. 11. They’ll close out their season series… whenever their postponed game gets rescheduled.