The Calgary Flames (32-25-11, 75 points) are in the midst of a four game eastern road trip. The trip began with a tough night at the office against the Toronto Maple Leafs, but they’ve put in two pretty outings – with two good results – in their games against the NY Rangers and New Jersey. The Flames head to Long Island on Saturday for an early game with the New York Islanders (32-28-8, 72 points), with a chance to close out the road trip on a high and boost their playoff hopes.

Today’s broadcast begins at 2 p.m. MT on Sportsnet’s national feed and Sportsnet 960 The Fan.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

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

Kevin Bahl – Rasmus Andersson
Joel Hanley – MacKenzie Weegar
Jake Bean – Daniil Miromanov

We’re projecting Dan Vladar to start in net (given the tight turnaround and early start), backed up by Dustin Wolf. The expected extras are Brayden Pachal and Dryden Hunt. We’re not expecting any changes from the past two games’ lineups.

The Flames have been really good for four periods of this road trip, and they’ve won two games so far. They were flat-out superb against a pretty blah Rangers team on Tuesday, and had a great third period against the Devils on Thursday. They could use a more consistent three periods of hockey against the Islanders, but it’s hard to fault the results they’ve managed to get thus far. There are no more style points to be earned, only standings points.

The Flames open the day two points behind St. Louis for the final Western Conference wild card playoff spot, and hold two games in hand on the Blues. We’re still very much in the portion of the schedule where the Flames can win their own way into the playoffs and don’t need to rely on anybody else losing to get them in.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Simon Holmstrom – Bo Horvat – Kyle Palmieri
Anders Lee – Jean-Pierre Pageau – Anthony Duclair
Pierre Engvall – Casey Cizikas – Hudson Fasching
Maxim Tsyplakov – Kyle MacLean – Marc Gatcomb

Mike Reilly – Ryan Pulock
Alexander Romanov – Anthony DeAngelo
Adam Pelech – Noah Dobson

We’re expecting Ilya Sorokin to start in net, backed up by Marcus Hogberg. Their projected extras are Matt Martin, Scott Perunovich and Scott Mayfield. All signs point to Alexander Romanov returning to action for the first time in a week.

The Islanders begin Saturday’s action two points behind Montreal for the final Eastern Conference wild card spot. They’ve been a streaky team this season. They’ve won three in a row, but that followed them losing three in a row (0-1-2). Before that they won four of five, but that followed a stretch where they lost five of six. If the Islanders were a bit more consistent, they’d probably be in a playoff spot – probably pretty comfortably.

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

The Islanders are without Mathew Barzal, Adam Boqvist and Semyon Varlamov.

This is the season series finale between Calgary and the Islanders. The Flames beat the Islanders in a shootout in Calgary back in November.