It’s that time of the year, folks! For the one and only time this season, the Calgary Flames (15-11-6, 36 points) are paid a visit by Kanata, Ontario’s favourite team, the Ottawa Senators (16-13-2, 34 points). The Flames are one of the NHL’s best home teams this season, but Senators are on a tear in December. Which trend will continue?

Tonight’s broadcast begins at 7 p.m. MT on Sportsnet West 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 Dan Vladar to start in net, backed up by Dustin Wolf. The projected extras are Daniil Miromanov and Tyson Barrie, with Andrei Kuzmenko remaining out day-to-day with an injury.

As the holiday break looms, the Flames enter Thursday’s action in a playoff spot; they’re tied with Colorado in points, but are ahead because they’ve played fewer games. Considering the many, many changes the Flames have gone through since Craig Conroy became general manager in the 2023 off-season, that’s pretty remarkable. If nothing else, the Flames have established themselves as a tough night at the office for their opponents.

The Flames are 3-2-2 in December, with their best line being the newly-formed top line of Nazem Kadri, Jonathan Huberdeau and Martin Pospisil – head coach Ryan Huska recently raved about Pospisil’s play of late. The Flames have gotten offence from their highest-paid, most experienced offensive players, and it’s been the difference in a few recent games. That’ll need to continue if the Flames are going to hang around the playoff pack.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Brady Tkachuk – Josh Norris – Drake Batherson
Claude Giroux – Tim Stützle – Adam Gaudette
Nick Cousins – Shane Pinto – Michael Amadio
Noah Gregor – Zack Ostapchuk – Ridly Greig

Thomas Chabot – Nick Jensen
Jake Sanderson – Travis Hamonic
Tyler Kleven – Jacob Bernard-Docker

We’re projecting Linus Ullmark to start in net, backed up by Lauri Merilainen. They have no healthy extras.

Man, the Senators have been a wagon this month, and a lot of that is because of their goaltending. They’ve won six of their last seven games and have posted a 6-1-1 record in December. Ullmark is 6-0-1 this month, allowing just eight goals over seven games – including two shutouts. It’s hard to out-score the Senators when they allow barely a goal per game.

The Flames haven’t had a great record against the Senators over the past few seasons, but they’re the type of team they have to learn to beat consistently if they want to get to the level they’re hoping to reach. (The Senators are young, fast, talented and finally seeming to figure out how they need to play to be successful.)

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

The Senators are without Artem Zub, David Perron and Anton Forsberg.

This is the season series finale between these clubs this season. The Flames lost to Ottawa in Ottawa in late November.