The Calgary Flames (24-18-7, 55 points) did something on Tuesday night that’s not all that common this season: they lost at home. They’ll try not to make that a habit on Thursday evening when they host the Anaheim Ducks (21-23-6, 48 points). The Flames are trying to solidify their playoff aspirations, while the Ducks are doing their best to play spoiler. It should be an interesting evening of hockey.

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

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Jonathan Huberdeau – Nazem Kadri – Jakob Pelletier
Blake Coleman – Mikael Backlund – Matt Coronato
Martin Pospisil – Yegor Sharangovich – Andrei Kuzmenko
Ryan Lomberg – Clark Bishop – Adam Klapka

Joel Hanley – Rasmus Andersson
Jake Bean – MacKenzie Weegar
Tyson Barrie – Brayden Pachal

Looking to end their skid, the Flames look to be going with Dustin Wolf in net, backed up by Dan Vladar. It’ll be Wolf’s 29th start of the season. The projected extras are Daniil Miromanov and Kevin Rooney. We’re not anticipating substantial changes from Tuesday’s lineup.

The Flames are coming off back-to-back losses. On one hand, they lost to Winnipeg and Washington, two of the NHL’s top teams. It’ll happen when they line up next to each other on your schedule. On the other hand, they combined to score three goals over the two games – and just one of their goals was at even strength. The Flames are a team that’s pretty comfortable playing in tight games, but if they’re hoping to be a playoff team they absolutely need to score more goals.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Frank Vatrano – Ryan Strome – Troy Terry
Trevor Zegras – Leo Carlsson – Alex Killorn
Cutter Gauthier – Mason McTavish – Robby Fabbri
Jansen Harkins – Isac Lundestrom – Brett Leason

Jackson Lacombe – Radko Gudas
Pavel Mintyukov – Jacob Trouba
Brian Dumoulin – Drew Helleson

We’re projecting Lukas Dostal to start in net, backed up by John Gibson. The projected extras are Ross Johnston and Olen Zellweger.

The Ducks enter this game on a three game winning streak. They’re mostly healthy at this point, and they’ve gotten pretty good contributions from a lot of their key players. They’re probably too far back at this point to be a playoff team, but you can see how they’re playing these days and not have to imagine many changes required to get them closer.

This is the first time the Ducks (and Drew Helleson) have played the Flames since Connor Zary’s injury three weeks back.

We’re see what kind of reception Helleson receives from the ‘Dome crowd.

The Flames are without Anthony Mantha, Justin Kirkland, Connor Zary and Kevin Bahl.

The Ducks are without Brock McGinn.

This is the second of four games between these teams this season. The Flames beat the Ducks in overtime earlier this month. They’ll play twice more – once in Calgary and once in Anaheim – to close out their season series in April.