After splitting their pair of games on the Dads Trip, the Calgary Flames (13-17-4, 30 points) are back home and back in action on Thursday night when they host the Seattle Kraken (12-13-6, 30 points). It’s a clash between two of the teams closer to the bottom of the NHL’s standings, that both have aspirations to be, y’know, not in the basement.

Today’s broadcast begins at 7 p.m. MT on Sportsnet One 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 – Hunter Brzustewicz

Per Sportsnet’s Pat Steinberg, Dustin Wolf starts in goal, backed up by Devin Cooley. The projected extra skaters are Dryden Hunt and Brayden Pachal. Wolf had a sub-par night in San Jose by his standards, allowing five goals, and he’ll be looking for a bounce-back against the Kraken.

The Flames lost on Tuesday night in San Jose, dropping the game by a 6-3 score. They were decent enough and not out-and-out bad, and the score probably looks worse because of Macklin Celebrini doing crazy-good hockey things. That said, the Flames had opportunities to grab hold of the game via their power play… and didn’t take advantage of those opportunities.

Returning home, the Flames need to stick with what’s worked for them: structured five-on-five play and opportunistic scoring. As always, the margins between winning and losing for them remain razor thin.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Eeli Tolvanen – Chandler Stephenson – Freddie Gaudreau
Mason Marchment – Matty Beniers – Jordan Eberle
Jani Nyman – Shane Wright – Kaapo Kakko
Tye Kartye – Ben Meyers – Ryan Winterton

Vince Dunn – Jamie Oleksiak
Ryan Lindgren – Ryker Evans
Josh Mahura – Adam Larsson

We’re projecting Joey Daccord to start in net, backed up by Philipp Grubauer. The extra skaters look to be Jacob Melanson and Cale Fleury.

So, uh, things aren’t going great for the Kraken lately, folks. They’ve lost nine of their past 10 games, and have one just one game in the month of December. They’re a group that, like the Flames in October, haven’t been out-and-out bad, but have found ways to lose lately. And for a team that had playoff aspirations, that’s not ideal. We’ll see if they can turn it around.

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

The Kraken are without Jaden Schwartz, Matt Murray, Berkly Catton, Jared McCann and Brandon Montour.

This is the first of three games between the Flames and Kraken. They’ll meet again in Calgary on Jan. 5 and in Seattle on Apr. 11.

This article is a presentation of Platinum Mitsubishi, family owned and operated by lifelong Calgarians. Home of the industry-leading 10-year, 160,000-kilometre powertrain warranty. Check out their showroom at 2720 Barlow Trail NE or online at www.mitsu.ca.