Clashes between the Calgary Flames (30-23-10, 70 points) and Vancouver Canucks (29-24-11, 69 points) are always feisty. Heck, the Canucks and Flames have even had a recent line brawl. Well, Wednesday night’s match-up occurs with the Flames in a playoff spot and the Canucks just a single point behind them. So in addition to historical animosity, there’s a playoff berth on the line at the Saddledome. As if they needed any additional motivation.

Today’s broadcast begins at 7 p.m. MT on Sportsnet’s national feed and Sportsnet 960 The Fan.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

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

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

We’re projecting Dustin Wolf to start in net, backed up by Dan Vladar. We’re projecting Daniil Miromanov and Adam Klpaka as the extras. No changes are expected for the Flames.

Since they’ve returned from the 4 Nations Face-Off break, the Flames have gone 4-2-2. They’ve had one rough game – their visit to Florida – but other than that, this is a group that is blessed (or cursed) with self-awareness this season. They’ve not a team that can run and gun offensively. They cannot usually out-score their mistakes, and they’re reliant on their strong goaltending. But since they know that, they play a pretty smart, structured, tight-checking defensive style of game.

Through 63 games, that style of game has them in a playoff spot. If they can keep this up against Vancouver – and then 18 more times – it might be enough to keep them playing past Game 82.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Drew O’Connor – Elias Pettersson – Brock Boeser
Jake DeBrusk – Filip Chytil – Jonathan Lekkerimaki
Dakota Joshua – Teddy Blueger – Conor Garland
Nils Hoglander – Pius Suter – Kiefer Sherwood

Elias (D) Pettersson – Filip Hronek
Marcus Pettersson – Tyler Myers
Derek Forbort – Victor Mancini

The Canucks used Kevin Lankinen in Tuesday night’s 4-2 loss against Montreal, so we’re guessing that backup Arturs Silovs plays against Calgary. (We’ll see, as Canucks coach Rick Tocchet was non-committal after Tuesday’s game.) Tuesday’s extras were Nils Aman and Derek Forbort, so we’ll see if either of them slot in against the Flames. Quinn Hughes could play. Maybe.

This is the second half of a back-to-back for Vancouver. They hosted the Habs and lost 4-2 at home on Tuesday. Heck, since the Flames’ 1-0 win over Montreal on Saturday, the Flames have been idle and the Canucks have played (and lost) twice. The Canucks are a team that, on paper, should be really fun to watch when fully healthy. Unfortunately, they’re never fully healthy and for various reasons, the players they’ve had available have been less than the sum of their parts this season.

Expect to see a desperate Canucks team against the Flames as they try to stop the bleeding.

The Flames are without Anthony Mantha and Justin Kirkland.

The Canucks are without Thatcher Demko, Noah Juulsen and Quinn Hughes.

This is the 269th regular season meeting between these two teams and the fourth and final regular season meeting they’ll have this season. The Flames have won two of their prior three meetings. They won 6-5 in overtime in their first game of the season, and since then the two teams have exchanged 3-1 results.