As the saying goes: it’s the NHL, it’s on Monday, it’s on Prime… and it’s the start of another gigantic road trip with massive playoff implications for the Calgary Flames (30-24-11, 71 points). The Flames will play four games over the next six days, starting with a meeting with the Toronto Maple Leafs (39-24-3, 81 points), a club with a very dangerous roster. Can the Flames bounce back from a disappointing outing against Colorado?

Today’s broadcast begins at 5:30 p.m. MT on Prime Video and Sportsnet 960 The Fan. This is the Leafs’ annual St. Patrick’s Day game, so they’ll be wearing their snazzy Toronto St. Pat’s retros – honouring their team name from 1919-27 – while the Flames are wearing their home reds for a rare road game.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Jonathan Huberdeau – Nazem Kadri – Martin Pospisil
Blake Coleman – Morgan Frost – Matt Coronato
Joel Farabee – Yegor Sharangovich – Dryden Hunt
Ryan Lomberg – Kevin Rooney – Adam Klapka

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. Daniil Miromanov is the projected extra skater. Connor Zary will serve the second and final game of his suspension for elbowing Vancouver defender Elias Pettersson.

Playing their first game since 2021 without hockey safety blanket Mikael Backlund on Friday night, the Flames were pretty tentative for the first two periods against Colorado and then seemed to go “Oh wait, maybe we can beat these guys!” and played a pretty good third period. As Blake Coleman phrased it post-game, though, it was too little, too late. If the Flames can bring that level of effort and competitiveness early on, that’s probably what they’ll need to do throughout this road trip.

With 17 games remaining, the Flames are no longer after style points or moral victories. They need actual points and victories, by hook or by crook. We’re firmly in the “get busy living or get busy dying” part of the season. And when all is said and done, there’s a good chance that this four game road trip will be looked back on as the stretch that helped them grab a playoff spot… or allowed it to slip away.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Matthew Knies – Auston Matthews – Mitch Marner
Pontus Holmberg – John Tavares – William Nylander
Bobby McMann – Max Domi – Nick Robertson
Steven Lorentz – Scott Laughton – Calle Jarnkrok

Jake McCabe – Chris Tanev
Morgan Rielly – Brandon Carlo
Simon Benoit – Oliver Ekman-Larsson

Joseph Woll is expected to start in net for Toronto, backed up by Anthony Stolarz. Their projected extras are Philippe Myers and David Kampf. The Flames will greet short-term Flame Calle Jarnkrok and long-term Flame Chris Tanev as they visit them in their new home.

We’ve discussed the Flames’ penchant for incomplete games lately – rough finishes against Montreal and Vancouver and a slow start against Colorado – but the Maple Leafs have experienced that as well. They’ve lost five of their last six games (1-4-1), and they haven’t won a game in regulation in the month of March (2-4-1). (In March, the Flames are 2-2-3 with two regulation wins.) Not to throw stones, but when you look at the level of individual talent on the Leafs’ roster… they should be better in the aggregate than they have been lately.

The last time the Flames played the Leafs, beloved Calgary-born forward William Nylander scored a hat trick. The Leafs have enough individual skill that even if their team game can be clunky at times, they can skill themselves to victories if their opponents have defensive lapses.

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

The Maple Leafs are without Jani Hakanpaa and Max Pacioretty.

This is the season series finale between Calgary and Toronto. The Leafs beat the Flames 6-3 back in February. The game was close for the first half, but then a few defensive miscues by the Flames allowed Toronto to pull away.