Two relatively recent playoff rivals will meet on a Sunday night in Texas! The Calgary Flames (13-9-5, 31 points) have one of the NHL’s best home records, but are rather poor away from the palatial Scotiabank Saddledome. They’ll try to get back on track when they visit the Dallas Stars (16-10-0, 32 points), a team they’ve clashed with in two of their last three playoff series. Can the Flames win their first road game in a month?

Tonight’s broadcast begins at 6 p.m. MT on Sportsnet West (and their national feed) and Sportsnet 960 The Fan.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Jonathan Huberdeau – Nazem Kadri – Martin Pospisil
Blake Coleman – Connor Zary – Walker Duehr
Yegor Sharangovich – Mikael Backlund – Matt Coronato
Jakob Pelletier – Kevin Rooney – Andrei Kuzmenko

Kevin Bahl – Rasmus Andersson
MacKenzie Weegar – Daniil Miromanov
Jake Bean – Brayden Pachal

We’re projecting Dustin Wolf to start in net, backed up by Dan Vladar. The projected extras are Joel Hanley and Tyson Barrie. Per Sportsnet’s Derek Wills, Ryan Lomberg didn’t make the trip as he stayed behind in Calgary with his wife, who’s expecting their baby. As a result, Andrei Kuzmenko rotates back in after being a scratch for the past two games.

The Flames are a weird team this season. They’re very good at home! They’re 10-3-1 with a 49.3% expected goals percentage. On the road, they’re not as good, going 3-6-4 with a 49.0% expected goals percentage. If you’re asking yourself “Hey, their underlyings aren’t that much worse on the road,” you’re right. The big difference is the Flames’ goalies are top notch at home (95.6% 5v5 save percentage) and merely average on the road (91.7% 5v5 save percentage); they have an equally hard time scoring at home and on the road.

The Flames have lost their last seven road games, going 0-4-3 since their dramatic overtime win in Montreal in early November.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Jason Robertson – Roope Hintz – Wyatt Johnston
Mason Marchment – Matt Duchene – Logan Stankoven
Jamie Benn – Sam Steel – Evgenii Dadonov
Oskar Back – Mavrik Bourque – Colin Blackwell

Miro Heiskanen – Ilya Lyubushkin
Thomas Harley – Matt Dumba
Nils Lundqvist – Esa Lindell

We’re projecting Jake Oettinger to start in net, backed up by Casey DeSmith. Their healthy extra is Brendan Smith.

Dallas is the team the Flames hope to be when they grow up, a really unique, fun mixture of veterans and homegrown talent. For my money, I don’t think any organization blends drafting with player development as well as the Stars do – the Texas Stars just keep producing NHL-ready bodies for Dallas and it’s great to see so many progress.

The Stars are having a bit of an uneven season so far, though. They’re coming off back-to-back 3-2 losses to Pacific Division teams (Los Angeles on Wednesday, Vegas on Friday). They’ve been streaky this season, but more good than bad so far. They just haven’t gone on a lengthy winning streak quite yet. But they’re Dallas, so that’s always on the table.

The Flames are without Anthony Mantha and Justin Kirkland.

The Stars are without Tyler Seguin.

This is the first of three meetings between these two clubs. They’ll square off again in Dallas on Mar. 6 (in each team’s final game before the trade deadline) and close out the season series in Calgary on Mar. 29.