Friends, sometimes on the hockey calendar there’s a game that’s so massive, so consequential, that the sporting world grinds to a halt for everyone to bear witness. Tuesday night… probably won’t be one of those nights, as two of the NHL’s lowest-ranked teams clash at Enterprise Center in St. Louis. The 32nd overall Calgary Flames (4-11-2, 10 points) face the 31st overall St. Louis Blues (5-8-3, 13 points) in a battle of two struggling hockey clubs.

Today’s broadcast begins at 6 p.m. MT on Sportsnet West and Sportsnet 960 The Fan.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

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

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

We’re projecting Dustin Wolf to start in net, backed up by Devin Cooley. The projected extra skaters look to be Jake Bean, Daniil Miromanov and Justin Kirkland.

Are the Flames a bad hockey team? Yes and no. On the no side, they have the puck a lot, they don’t give up a ton of quality chances, and they have some pretty good hockey players on their roster. On the yes side, well, they’ve been shut out in back to back games. And while they’re a team with undeniable talent, they lack game-breaking talent that can help them out-score their mistakes.

And as such, they sit 32nd overall right now heading into Tuesday’s game. They’re nine points back of the final Western Conference playoff spot through 20% of the schedule.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Pavel Buchnevich – Robert Thomas – Jimmy Snuggerud
Brayden Schenn – Pius Suter – Nick Bjugstad
Dylan Holloway – Dalibor Dvorsky – Jordan Kyrou
Alexey Toropchenko – Oskar Sundqvist – Nathan Walker

Philip Broberg – Colton Parayko
Cam Fowler – Justin Faulk
Tyler Tucker – Matthew Kessel

We’re projecting Jordan Binnington in net, backed up by Joel Hofer. The projected extras are Alexandre Texier and Hunter Skinner.

So remember how the Blues barely edged out the Flames for the final playoff spot back in April? On tiebreakers? Well, things haven’t gone as well for them this season as last season. They’ve alternated wins and losses lately, which doesn’t sound great until you consider that they preceded that with a seven game losing skid. They are having a frustrating season, not unlike the Flames, because they’re a group that you look at and go “Oh man, they should be so much better than they are.”

But this year? The Blues, like the Flames, are riding the struggle bus. And someone is going to get a two point life preserver on Tuesday night.

The Flames are without Martin Pospisil and Zayne Parekh.

The Blues are without Torey Krug, Jake Neighbours and Mathieu Joseph.

This is the second of three meetings between these clubs this season. The Blues beat the Flames 4-2 back in the Flames’ home-opener. They’ll meet one more time on Mar. 18 in Calgary.

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