It’s the holiday season, friends, and it’s time to be around those you hold near and dear. Or, in the case of this province’s two National Hockey League teams, it’s time for a home-and-home set against your club’s most bitter rivals. The Calgary Flames (15-17-4, 4 points) are headed north to close out their pre-Christmas schedule against the Edmonton Oilers (18-13-6, 42 points), a clash that will be rematched later in the week back in Calgary. Both teams are having strong Decembers, but someone will need to take an L before Santa arrives: which will it be?

Today’s broadcast begins at 7 p.m. MT on Sportsnet West, 360 and Sportsnet 960 The Fan. It’ll be a unique jersey match-up, as the Flames are wearing their home red jerseys (in Edmonton) in opposition of the Oilers’ white alternate jerseys.

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

We’re projecting Dustin Wolf to start in net, backed up by Devin Cooley. The projected extra skaters are Justin Kirkland and Brayden Pachal.

The Flames are 6-3-0 in December. They’ve played some pretty good hockey since the first week of November, but they’re still digging themselves out of the standings hole they dug themselves with their rough 2-9-2 start. They remain a team that has to do things by committee, relying on a structured forecheck and coordinated offensive attack to win games.

With Tuesday’s Battle of Alberta, Flames captain Mikael Backlund will enter a tie with Mark Giordano and Joel Otto with 67  regular season games against Edmonton, fourth-most in franchise history. Only Jarome Iginla (89), Al MacInnis (75) and Jim Peplinski (69) have played more.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Connor McDavid – Zach Hyman
Vasily Podkolzin – Leon Draisaitl – Jack Roslovic
Andrew Mangiapane – Adam Henrique – Matthew Savoie
Max Jones – Trent Frederic – Mattias Janmark

Mattias Ekholm – Evan Bouchard
Darnell Nurse – Alec Regula
Spencer Stastney – Ty Emberson

Connor Ingram was in the starter’s net at morning skate, and he’ll be backed up by Calvin Pickard. The projected extras are Curtis Lazar, Riley Stillman and David Tomasek. Trent Frederic returns to action after being a spectator in Edmonton’s last outing.

This is Edmonton’s third game in four nights, and part of a stretch dating back to Dec. 9 that’s had the Oilers play nine games in 15 days. (For comparison’s sake, the Flames have had two days between games and Tuesday will be their sixth game since Dec. 9.) Despite a pretty hectic schedule at times, a some changes to their team due to injuries and trades – including an injury to new goaltender Tristan Jarry – the Oilers are 7-3-1 in December.

The Oilers have scored on 1-in-3 power play opportunities this season. Do not take penalties against the Oilers.

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

The Oilers are without Jake Walman, Kasperi Kapanen, Connor Clattenburg, Noah Philp and Tristan Jarry.

This is the second of four Battles of Alberta in 2025-26. The Flames won Round 1 in a shootout back in October. They’ll meet again twice more in Calgary on Dec. 27 and Feb. 4.

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