The Calgary Flames (17-12-7, 41 points) often close out the calendar year with a game on New Year’s Eve. 2024-25 is their 52nd season and Tuesday evening will represent their 36th New Year’s Eve game. They’ll take on the Vancouver Canucks (17-10-8, 42 points) in 2024’s swan-song, with a big two points on the line between these old divisional foes.

Tonight’s broadcast begins at 7 p.m. MT on Sportsnet West and Pacific and Sportsnet 960 The Fan.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

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 Dan Vladar. The projected extras are Andrei Kuzmenko, Daniil Miromanov and Tyson Barrie. In short: it looks like they’re reverting back to the lineup they used on Saturday in San Jose.

This is the 30th New Year’s Eve game at the Saddledome and the Flames’ 36th game on Dec. 31 in their history – they’re 22-10-3 all-time. It’s their third New Year’s Eve against Vancouver, who they hosted in 2007 and 2022. They haven’t played an away game on Dec. 31 since 1986, and they’ve hosted on Dec. 31 in pretty much every “regular” (non-lockout, non-pandemic) season since 1987, except for 2011.

The Flames are 5-3-3 in December. They remain firmly in the playoff picture and they’re currently a point behind Vancouver for the final wild-card spot. This is, improbably, a pretty important game in the West’s playoff picture.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Jake DeBrusk – J.T. Miller – Brock Boeser
Nils Hoglander – Pius Suter – Conor Garland
Danton Heinen – Teddy Blueger – Kiefer Sherwood
Dakota Joshua – Max Sasson – Phil di Giuseppe

Derek Forbort – Tyler Myers
Carson Soucy – Noah Juulsen
Erik Brannstrom – Vincent Desharnais

Per head coach Rick Tocchet, Kevin Lankinen starts for the Canucks, backed up by Thatcher Demko. Their projected extra is Guillaume Brisebois. The Canucks will be missing Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes, who are both still on the active roster but are missing some time due to injuries.

What can we say about the 2024-25 Canucks? They’re an odd team. Remember when they bottled up the Flames in November? They’re capable of that. Remember when they blew multiple multi-goal leads against the Flames in the season-opener? They’re also capable of that. They’ve been missing players here and there all season, and they’ve struggled with consistency as a consequence.

They’re a really good hockey club when they’re at their best. They can be downright frustrating to play against. But when they’re not at their best, they can be downright frustrating for their fans to watch.

The Flames are without Anthony Mantha and Justin Kirkland.

The Canucks are without Filip Hronek, Quinn Hughes and Elias Pettersson.

This is the third of four meetings between these old rivals this season. They split the first two meetings, both in Vancouver: the Flames won 6-5 in overtime after a dramatic comeback on Oct. 9 and the Canucks won 3-1 on Nov. 12. They’ll finish off the season series in Calgary on Mar. 12.