On the heels of an ugly home loss on Thursday night, the Calgary Flames (14-11-5, 33 points) will look to rebound when they host a tough test in the form of the Florida Panthers (18-10-2, 38 points), the reigning Stanley Cup champions. The Panthers have become beloved in southern Alberta for their defeat of the Edmonton Oilers in the Cup Final, but will they be as well-regarded after Saturday’s contest? And can the Flames find a way to beat the champs?

Tonight’s broadcast begins at 8 p.m. MT on Sportsnet West, One and City TV and Sportsnet 960 The Fan.

Projected lines via Sportsnet’s Pat Steinberg:

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

Kevin Bahl – Rasmus Andersson
Joel Hanley – MacKenzie Weegar
Jake Bean – Brayden Pachal

We’re projecting Dustin Wolf to start in net, backed up by Devin Cooley. The projected extras are Daniil Miromanov and Tyson Barrie. Miromanov and Kuzmenko are both out after uneven performances against Florida (Kuzmenko is also nursing an injury, as announced by the club), while Hanley and Pelletier rotate in.

What can we say about how the Flames looked against Tampa? Well, they weren’t good. The key to the Flames’ game is pace and structure, and they played slow and disconnected. That’s not a recipe for success for this group. They’ll need to get back to basics and play their style of game if they want to have a good result against the Panthers. (And Florida’s flat-out a good hockey team, so the Flames playing their own game well still might not be enough.)

Since the Tkachuk blockbuster in July 2022, the Flames have won three of four meetings with the Panthers, including both games at the Saddledome.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Carter Verhaeghe – Alexsander Barkov – Sam Reinhart
Evan Rodrigues – Sam Bennett – Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Jesper Boqvist
A.J. Greer – Tomas Nosek – Mackie Samoskevich

Gustav Forsling – Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola – Dmitry Kulikov
Uvis Balinskis – Nate Schmidt

Per Paul Maurice, Spencer Knight starts in net, backed up by Sergei Bobrovsky. Their projected extras are Jonah Gadjovich and Adam Boqvist (Jesper’s brother).

The Panthers have been a really strong team for a few seasons, culminating with a dramatic seven game victory over some hockey team from Edmonton back in June. They’re off to a pretty good start to this season, too, sitting slightly behind the Toronto Maple Leafs for first place in the Atlantic Division. They’re a strong possession team, have good goaltending, and are effective on both sides of special teams.

Remember Sam Bennett and Matthew Tkachuk? They used to play for the Flames but were traded to Florida. Bennett has four points in five games against Calgary, while Tkachuk has four in four games. Keep an eye on them this evening.

The Flames are without Anthony Mantha, Justin Kirkland, Dan Vladar and Andrei Kuzmenko.

The Panthers are healthy.

This is the first of two games between the Flames and Panthers this season. The season series concludes on Mar. 1 in Sunrise, Florida.