This could be a fun one, folks. The Calgary Flames (24-17-7, 55 points) are back at the Scotiabank Saddledome, where they’ll host the top team in the National Hockey League, the Washington Capitals (33-11-5, 71 points). We’ll likely see one of the NHL’s top young goaltenders, Dustin Wolf, face off against possibly the greatest goal-scorer of all-time, Alex Ovechkin.

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

Projected lines via Sportsnet’s Pat Steinberg:

Jonathan Huberdeau – Nazem Kadri – Jakob Pelletier
Blake Coleman – Mikael Backlund – Matt Coronato
Martin Pospisil – Yegor Sharangovich – Andrei Kuzmenko
Ryan Lomberg – Clark Bishop – Adam Klapka

Joel Hanley – Rasmus Andersson
Jake Bean – MacKenzie Weegar
Tyson Barrie – Brayden Pachal

We’re expecting Dustin Wolf to start in net, backed up by Dan Vladar. Per Sportsnet’s Pat Steinberg, the Flames’ extras look to be Daniil Miromanov and Kevin Rooney. Kevin Bahl, still technically on the active roster, isn’t expected to play after leaving Minnesota’s game due to injury.

The Flames have played pretty well of late, but they haven’t really strung together a ton of wins. They’re 6-5-0 since the calendar flipped over to 2025, with the highlight being their recent three game win streak that was snapped on Sunday in Winnipeg. They’ve played well enough to be in most of their games, and good enough to hang around the playoff picture ahead of a struggling Vancouver group, but if they have designs on locking into a playoff spot they’ll need to string wins together.

Y’know who’s playing pretty well recently? Andrei Kuzmenko! He’s starting to get his swagger back and he was downright dangerous offensively in Minnesota. Keep an eye on #96 against Washington.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Alex Ovechkin – Dylan Strome – Connor McMichael
Aliaksei Protas – Pierre-Luc Dubois – Tom Wilson
Taylor Raddysh – Lars Eller – Ethen Frank
Brandon Duhaime – Nic Dowd – Andrew Mangiapane

Rasmus Sandin – John Carlson
Jakob Chychrun – Trevor van Riemsdyk
Martin Fehervary – Matt Roy

Calgary product Logan Thompson is expected to start, fresh off signing a contract extension with the Capitals. (He’ll be backed up by Charlie Lindgren). The projected extras for Washington are Jakub Vrana, Alex Alexeyev and Dylan McIlrath.

The Capitals lost to Vancouver by a 2-1 score on Saturday. However, that’s the first time they left a game without earning a standings point since Dec. 29. That ended a run that saw them go 8-0-3.

Obscure Russian forward Alex Ovechkin has 22 goals over 33 games this season. He’s 19 goals behind Wayne Gretzky for the NHL’s all-time goal-scoring record. This will likely be his second head-to-head game against Wolf; he scored two power play goals last season when he faced the Flames in Calgary.

The Flames are without Anthony Mantha, Justin Kirkland, Connor Zary and Kevin Bahl. Tyson Barrie is with the Wranglers on a conditioning stint.

The Capitals are without Nicklas Backstrom, T.J. Oshie and Sonny Milano.

This is the first of two head-to-head meetings between the Flames and Capitals in 2024-25. They’ll close out their season series in D.C. in February, after the 4 Nations Face-Off break.