After a mixed bag of a four game road trip, the Calgary Flames (3-9-2, 8 points) are back at home and kick off a short homestand on Wednesday evening when they host the Columbus Blue Jackets (7-5-0, 14 points). It’s a milestone game for Nazem Kadri as he plays his 1,000th regular season NHL contest, and an opportunity for the Flames to try to keep much-needed momentum going from Sunday’s win in Philadelphia.

Today’s broadcast begins at 7:30 p.m. MT on Sportsnet West, Sportsnet One and Sportsnet 960 The Fan.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Connor Zary – Nazem Kadri – Joel Farabee
Jonathan Huberdeau – Morgan Frost – Matt Coronato
Sam Honzek – Mikael Backlund – Blake Coleman
Ryan Lomberg – Yegor Sharangovich – Adam Klapka

Kevin Bahl – Rasmus Andersson
Joel Hanley – MacKenzie Weegar
Yan Kuznetsov – Brayden Pachal

We’re projecting Dustin Wolf in net, backed up by Devin Cooley. The projected extras are Jake Bean, Zayne Parekh and Justin Kirkland, per Sportsnet’s Eric Francis that trio stayed on late after morning skate.

The Flames had a weird road trip, gang. They played three pretty good games – in Toronto, Ottawa and Philadelphia – and ended up with just three points to show for the trip, going 1-2-1. They’ve played well for the past few weeks, but they’ve found ways to lose close games by making mistakes at bad times. Yeah, we’ll freely admit that their win over the Flyers was boring as hell.

But that was exactly the type of game, and result, that the Flames needed to have. We’ll see if they can follow it up.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

We’re projecting Jet Greaves to start in net, backed up by Elvis Merzlikins. The projected extra is Yegor Chinakhov. Per reports, Denton Mateychuk is banged up and will miss Wednesday’s game.

The Blue Jackets lost to the Islanders on Sunday, snapping a four game winning streak. They start their season with just one win in their first four games, but they’re 6-2-0 since then and finding ways to maintain their momentum and avoid slumps.

The Flames are without Martin Pospisil.

The Blue Jackets are without Erik Gudbranson.

This is the first of two clashes between these clubs this season. They close out the season series in Columbus on Jan. 13.

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