It’s two games down, four to go for the Calgary Flames (28-22-8, 64 points) in their lengthy mega-trip throughout the Eastern Conference…. and Dallas. They hit the middle of their trip this weekend in the form of a pretty challenging back-to-back set. Up first? Only the defending Stanley Cup champions, the Florida Panthers (36-21-3, 75 points). Can the Flames maintain the high level of play we’ve seen over the first couple games of the trip… and somehow eke out a few more goals?

Today’s broadcast begins at 1 p.m. MT on Sportsnet’s national feed and Sportsnet 960 The Fan.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Jonathan Huberdeau – Nazem Kadri – Matt Coronato
Yegor Sharangovich – Mikael Backlund – Blake Coleman
Connor Zary – Morgan Frost – Joel Farabee
Ryan Lomberg – Kevin Rooney – Martin Pospisil

Kevin Bahl – Rasmus Andersson
Joel Hanley – MacKenzie Weegar
Ilya Solovyov – Brayden Pachal

We’re projecting Dustin Wolf to make the start in net, backed up by Dan Vladar. The projected extras are Daniil Miromanov, Jake Bean and Adam Klapka. It’s the first half of a back-to-back, with the Flames playing again on Sunday in Raleigh against the Hurricanes. Wolf shut the Panthers out back in December, so he likely gets the first half of this back-to-back set.

This game represents the return to scenic south Florida of Flames fourth-liner Ryan Lomberg, who famously won a Cup with the Panthers and spent the entire summer shirtless, hooting and hollering. It’s also the third trip back to Florida for former Panthers MacKenzie Weegar and Jonathan Huberdeau. Suffice it to say, there will be several Flames will some extra pep in their step this afternoon.

The Flames played pretty well on Thursday in Tampa, but their power play was… not great. They had several man advantage opportunities at times where they could’ve grabbed hold of the game, and unfortunately failed to do so. If their special teams can be a little bit better and they can maintain their five-on-five effectiveness, we don’t hate their chances.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Carter Verhaeghe – Aleksander Barkov – Sam Reinhart
Mackie Samoskevich – Sam Bennett – Evan Rodrigues
Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Jesper Boqvist
A.J. Greer – Tomas Nosek – Jonah Gadjovich

Gustav Forsling – Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola – Dmitry Kulikov
Uvis Balinskis – Nate Schmidt

Sergei Bobrovsky is slated to start in net, backed up by Spencer Knight. The Panthers have no healthy extras.

There are a lot of reasons for Flames fans to like the Panthers, including a couple former Flames players. 18-Year-Old Sam Bennett, now a 28-year-old man, in the last year has beaten the Edmonton Oilers for the Stanley Cup and beaten the United States for the 4 Nations Face-Off championship. (The Panthers really bailed Flames fans out with that “beating the Oilers for the Cup” thing.) Matthew Tkachuk, who won a Cup against the Oilers but lost as part of Team USA’s 4 Nations team, is injured and won’t play on Saturday.

Even without Tkachuk, the Panthers are a really good hockey team. They lead the Atlantic Division. The Flames will need to be sharp.

The Flames are without Anthony Mantha and Justin Kirkland.

The Panthers are without Matthew Tkachuk.

This is the season series finale between the Flames and Panthers. The Flames shut out the Panthers 3-0 back in December.