After suffering setbacks in back-to-back games – blemishing their perfect regulation record to that point – the Calgary Flames (5-2-1, 11 points) are headed to one of the tougher buildings in the National Hockey League to face one of its’ tougher opponents, the Vegas Golden Knights (6-2-1, 13 points). They say the house always wins in Vegas, but can the Flames bounce back from their recent losses and make the house go bust?

Tonight’s broadcast begins at 8 p.m. MT on Sportsnet West and Sportsnet 960 The Fan.

Projected lines via Sportsnet’s Eric Francis:

Yegor Sharangovich – Nazem Kadri – Andrei Kuzmenko
Jonathan Huberdeau – Martin Pospisil – Anthony Mantha
Connor Zary – Mikael Backlund – Blake Coleman
Ryan Lomberg – Kevin Rooney – Justin Kirkland

Kevin Bahl – Rasmus Andersson
MacKenzie Weegar – Daniil Miromanov
Joel Hanley – Brayden Pachal

We’re expecting the goalie rotation to continue, so Dan Vladar starts with Dustin Wolf backing up. The projected extras are Adam Klapka, Jake Bean and Tyson Barrie.

Glass half empty: the Flames have lost back-to-back games (against Carolina and Winnipeg). Glass half full: the Flames have lost those games to some really good hockey teams, and made those teams absolutely work their butts off to beat them. This year’s edition of the Flames was always going to have an uphill battle to face in the standings given the talented players that departed, but you absolutely cannot fault the effort we’ve seen.

Let’s see if they can get one or two difference-making performances against Vegas… and maybe one or two points, too.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Ivan Barbashev – Jack Eichel – Mark Stone
Brett Howden – Tomas Hertl – Pavel Dorofeyev
Tanner Pearson – William Karlsson – Alexander Holtz
Cole Schwindt – Nicolas Roy – Keegan Kolesar

Noah Hanifin – Alex Pietrangelo
Shea Theodore – Zach Whitecloud
Brayden McNabb – Kaedan Korczak

We’re projecting Adin Hill to start in net, backed up by Ilya Samsonov. The projected extras are Brendan Brisson and Ben Hutton.

Vegas has won three in a row (over Los Angeles, Ottawa and San Jose). Their game isn’t quite where they want it to be, particularly defensively, but they’ve managed to out-score their problems so far this season. They remain one of the league’s most anxiety-causing outfits particularly because they can flip a switch and seemingly score at will in tight games.

The Flames have won twice in 11 visits to T-Mobile Arena since the Golden Knights entered the NHL.

The Flames are without Sam Honzek.

The Golden Knights are without Victor Olofsson and Nicolas Hague.

This is the first of four games between Calgary and Vegas this season. They meet in Vegas again on Dec. 29, then close things out in Calgary with games on Apr. 5 and Apr. 15.