After over a week on the road, the Calgary Flames (9-14-4, 22 points) look to close out their lengthy five game road trip on a winning note when they clash with the Nashville Predators (8-13-4, 20 points). It’s a clash between two of the NHL’s lowest teams in the overall standings, but also between two pretty proud teams looking to prove that they’re not as bad as the hockey world say they are.

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
Connor Zary – Mikael Backlund – Blake Coleman
Ryan Lomberg – John Beecher – Adam Klapka

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

Per reports from the rink (via Sportsnet’s Derek Wills), it sounds like Devin Cooley starts for the third consecutive game, with Dustin Wolf backing up. The projected extras look to be Jake Bean and Dryden Hunt. (It was an optional morning skate, so we’ll see how things look at warm-up.)

The Flames were shut out in an overtime loss against Carolina on Sunday afternoon, their third goose-egg of the season. That said, the Flames were actually quite good – especially in the second half of the game – and it was only a superb showing from Hurricanes netminder Brandon Bussi that prevented them from a better outcome.

The Flames are 4-1-1 in their last six games. They haven’t run anybody’s show or anything, but they’ve given a good accounting of themselves in pretty much every game over the past few weeks. For a team looking for positives – and to help bring some youngsters along – it’s not nothing.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Steven Stamkos – Ryan O’Reilly – Luke Evangelista
Filip Forsberg – Erik Haula – Jonathan Marchessault
Reid Schaefer – Fedor Svechkov – Matthew Wood
Michael Bunting – Tyson Jost – Ozzy Weisblatt

Spencer Stastney – Roman Josi
Brady Skjei – Nick Blankenburg
Nicolas Hague – Nick Perbix

We’re projecting Juuse Saros in net, backed up by Justus Annunen. The projected extra skaters are Justin Barron and Adam Wilsby.

The Predators lost to Winnipeg on Saturday night, snapping their season high two game winning streak. They’re 2-4-0 over their last six games. The Flames have been hot and cold this season, but the Predators have been pretty consistent this season… and not in a positive way. We’ll see if they have enough time left in the season to turn things around.

The Flames are without Martin Pospisil, Zayne Parekh and Sam Honzek.

The Predators are without Cole Smith and Michael McCarron.

This is the second of four meetings between these clubs this season. The Predators beat the Flames by a 4-2 score on Nov. 1. They’ll close out the season series on Jan. 3 back in Calgary.

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