After battling for a point on Monday night, the Calgary Flames (21-23-5, 47 points) are back in action and are hosting Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins (23-14-11, 57 points) on Wednesday evening. It’s the 13th trip to the Saddledome for Crosby in his storied NHL career.

Today’s broadcast begins at 7:30 p.m. MT on Sportsnet West, Sportsnet One and Sportsnet 960 The Fan.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Connor Zary – Nazem Kadri – Matvei Gridin
Jonathan Huberdeau – Morgan Frost – Joel Farabee
Yegor Sharangovich – Mikael Backlund – Matt Coronato
Ryan Lomberg – Martin Pospisil – Adam Klapka

Yan Kuznetsov – MacKenzie Weegar
Kevin Bahl – Zach Whitecloud
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. All signs are pointing to Martin Pospisil making his season debut after missing the first 49 games of the season due to injury – his fifth concussion, by his estimation.

On paper, man, that fourth line looks like chaotic fun. The Flames are starting to find some chemistry with these new lines, and Blake Coleman is skating in a non-contact jersey and likely on his way back to the lineup fairly soon. You never know, the lines could start to get pretty interesting before too long.

The Flames are 3-5-1 in 2026 and 6-5-1 since Christmas… and they’re 3-1-1 in their last five.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Rickard Rakell – Sidney Crosby – Bryan Rust
Egor Chinakhov – Tommy Novak – Evgeni Malkin
Anthony Mantha – Ben Kindel – Justin Brazeau
Connor Dewar – Blake Lizotte – Noel Acciari

Brett Kulak – Kris Letang*
Ryan Shea – Parker Wotherspoon
Ryan Graves – Connor Clifton

We’re projecting Stuart Skinner to start in net, backed up by Latvian national hero Arturs Silovs. Their projected healthy extras are Ilya Solovyov, Jack St. Ivany and Kevin Hayes. Kris Letang missed practice on Tuesday and is dubbed day-to-day by the club; if he’s not good to go, presumably St. Ivany slots in and maybe defensive pairings shuffle around a bit.

This is the homecoming for Calgary Hitmen product Ben Kindel, selected by the Penguins at 11th overall back in June, then made the Penguins roster out of camp and has stuck around. He’s had a really solid rookie season – as a 18-year-old – and hopefully he gets a nice reception from the Saddledome as he returns to the building he played junior hockey in.

The Penguins aren’t what they once were, but they still boast a lot of strong players and they are, as of right now, in a playoff spot. Beware.

The Flames are without Sam Honzek, Jake Bean, John Beecher, Zayne Parekh and Blake Coleman.

The Penguins are without Joel Blomqvist, Filip Hallander, Caleb Jones and Erik Karlsson.

This is the finale of their two game season series. The Flames won 2-1 11 days ago in Pittsburgh.

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