Two days after a pretty dramatic evening that featured a big trade and a big win, the Calgary Flames (25-18-7, 57 points) look to kick off February with a clash against the Detroit Red Wings (25-21-5, 55 points). The Flames are introducing a pair of new players to their club on Saturday night, which is also the first half of a back-to-back that will see them visit the Seattle Kraken on Sunday. Can the Flames continue their march to the 4 Nations Face-Off with a victory?

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

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Jonathan Huberdeau – Nazem Kadri – Joel Farabee
Blake Coleman – Mikael Backlund – Matt Coronato
Yegor Sharangovich – Morgan Frost – Martin Pospisil
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, backed up by Dan Vladar. (It’s a back-to-back with travel, so we suspect they’ll do the usual split with Wolf getting the first game and Vladar getting the second one.) Wolf will be looking for his 20th win of the season. The projected extras look to be Kevin Rooney and Daniil Miromanov. We’re expecting to see the Flames debuts of Joel Farabee (wearing 86) and Morgan Frost (wearing 16).

The Flames had some built-in excuses to lose on Thursday against Anaheim. Andrei Kuzmenko was pulled from the game 90 minutes before puck drop, and Jakob Pelletier was yoinked from the game after the first game. They played two periods against a scrappy Anaheim team with 11 forwards, and there’s no way that the trade wasn’t a distraction. But head coach Ryan Huska praised his group for how they got through it, and they managed to play a pretty good game, overcoming some first period miscues to win 4-1.

The Flames enter Saturday’s action one point up on Vancouver (with a game in hand) for the final wildcard playoff spot in the West. They’re also just a point behind Los Angeles for the final Pacific Division playoff spot, though the Kings have a game in hand. Vancouver is idle on Saturday, while the Kings are visiting Carolina.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Marco Kasper – Dylan Larkin – Lucas Raymond
Alex Debrincat – Andrew Copp – Vladimir Tarasenko
Elmer Soderblom – Michael Rasmussen – Jonatan Berggren
Christian Fischer – Joe Veleno – Dominik Shine

Ben Chiarot – Moritz Seider
Simon Edvinsson – Albert Johansson
Erik Gustafsson – Justin Holl

We’re projecting Cam Talbot to start in net, backed up by Alex Lyon. The projected extras are Tyler Motte and William Lagesson.

The Red Wings are on a nice little run right now. They’ve won four games in a row, including a win on Thursday in Edmonton, and they’ve been on a pretty good tear since just before the New Year. They’re 12-4-1 under head coach Todd McLellan, who replaced Derek Lalonde on Boxing Day.

A lot of the hockey world has looked at the Red Wings’ roster for awhile and wondered when they could put it all together: they seem to have figured it out, at least for the last while. We’ll see if they can keep it up against the Flames.

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

The Red Wings are without Jeff Petry, Patrick Kane and J.T. Compher.

This is the finale of their two game season series. The Red Wings beat the Flames in overtime in Detroit back in November.