Remember the crowd-less pandemic season of 2020-21, where the Calgary Flames played pretty well but could not get past the (then) lowly Ottawa Senators to save their lives, and so they missed the playoffs that year? Well, as the first half of the 2024-25 season concludes, the Flames (18-14-7, 43 points) are in the playoff mix and have played well against teams above them. How they play against teams below them in the standings, like the Anaheim Ducks (17-18-4, 38 points) will probably determine if they make the playoffs or not.

Tonight is the first of four head-to-head meetings between these clubs this season. Tonight’s broadcast begins at 8 p.m. MT on Sportsnet West 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 – Andrei Kuzmenko

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

All indications are that Dustin Wolf starts in net in the first half of this back-to-back set, backed up by Dan Vladar. The projected extras are Walker Duehr, Daniil Miromanov and Tyson Barrie. Even after a fairly disastrous game on Saturday night, Andrei Kuzmenko gets another chance to show his quality against the Ducks.

The Flames have lost back-to-back games to kick off 2025, with mistakes costing them early in the third period against Utah and in the second period against Nashville. They’re 6-5-3 over 14 games since the start of December; they haven’t been bad but they’ve played poorly enough to have lost more games than they’ve won.

The Flames enter Tuesday’s action two points behind Vancouver for the final Western Conference playoff spot, with St. Louis and Utah right on their heels.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Frank Vatrano – Ryan Strome – ?
Cutter Gauthier – Mason McTavish – Robby Fabbri
Alex Killorn – Leo Carlsson – Brett Leason
Nikita Nesterenko – Isac Lundestrom – Jansen Harkins

Jackson Lacombe – Radko Gudas
Brian Dumoulin – Jacob Trouba
Olen Zellweger – Drew Helleson

We’re projecting John Gibson to start in net, backed up by Lukas Dostal. Their projected extra is Pavel Mintyukov. Via The Athletic’s Eric Stephens, Troy Terry won’t play tonight for the Ducks as his wife is about to give birth. So it sounds like Ross Johnston slots in… and some lines will change a bit, but it’s unclear how yet.

The Ducks have won two of three outings since the start of 2025. They’re 8-8-1 since the start of December and they’re starting to get some traction in the standings, as players like Troy Terry, Frank Vatrano and Jackson Lacombe start piling up points. And while we’re used to Anaheim being a not-great team… their young players are starting to take steps forward, and they’re just five points behind the Flames as their season series commences.

Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear.

The Flames are without Anthony Mantha and Justin Kirkland.

The Ducks are without Trevor Zegras and Brock McGinn.

This is the first game of their four game season series! They meet again in Calgary on Jan. 30 and Apr. 3, and close things out in Anaheim on Apr. 9.