In a sign that meaningful hockey is right around the corner, it’s time for the first pre-season edition of the Battle of Alberta! The Calgary Flames host the Edmonton Oilers, and there are NHL players on both rosters. (But mostly on Calgary’s.) Both teams have some key decisions yet to make on their opening night lineups, so what better way to figure that stuff out than 60 minutes of hockey against their most bitter rivals?

The puck drops at 7 p.m. MT and you can catch the action streamed on the Flames website or listen live on Sportsnet 960 The Fan!

Here are projected lines, via Sportsnet’s Pat Steinberg:

Jonathan Huberdeau – Elias Lindholm – Yegor Sharangovich
Dillon Dube – Nazem Kadri – Matt Coronato
Blake Coleman – Mikael Backlund (C) – Walker Duehr
Samuel Honzek – Cole Schwindt – Clark Bishop

Noah Hanifin – Rasmus Andersson
Jordan Oesterle – Chris Tanev
Jeremie Poirier – Ilya Solovyov

Dan Vladar is slated to start, backed up by Dustin Wolf.

After Thursday’s cuts the Flames are down to 48 players. We’ll see the in-game debut of Mikael Backlund as captain, the pre-season debut for this year of Jeremie Poirier, and a continuation of auditions for the likes of Coronato, Honzek, Duehr and Solovyov. It’ll be the fourth pre-season game, the most possible so far, for Coronato and Solovyov.

The Flames have played four games so far: a 10-0 win over Vancouver, a 5-3 loss to Seattle, a 3-2 shootout win over Seattle, and a 3-2 shootout win over Winnipeg.

Here’s who the Oilers are expected to bring, via the game notes:

The Oilers are down to 40 players after their cuts on Thursday, and the group they’re sending is basically their Bakersfield Condors stars, plus a sprinkling of NHLers for flavour. (Hey there, Derek Ryan and Brett Kulak!) But a few of the Oilers’ most fascinating youngsters are suiting up in the form of Savoie, Bourgault, Holloway and Lavoie.

The Oilers have one shootout win, one shootout loss, and one regulation loss under their belts so far in exhibition play.