On Tuesday, the Calgary Flames (28-21-8, 64 points) began their monstrous six game eastern road trip with a victory over the powerhouse Washington Capitals. (Alex Ovechkin scored a goal, so the crowd went home reasonably happy.) They will try to keep their momentum going on Thursday when they visit the Tampa Bay Lightning (33-20-4, 70 points), another very formidable Eastern Conference foe.

Tonight’s broadcast begins at 5 p.m. MT on Sportsnet West, Pacific and Sportsnet 960 The Fan.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Jonathan Huberdeau – Nazem Kadri – Matt Coronato
Connor Zary – Mikael Backlund – Blake Coleman
Yegor Sharangovich – Morgan Frost – Joel Farabee
Ryan Lomberg – Kevin Rooney – Martin Pospisil

Kevin Bahl – Rasmus Andersson
Joel Hanley – MacKenzie Weegar
Ilya Solovyov – Brayden Pachal

We’re projecting Dustin Wolf to make the start in net, backed up by Dan Vladar. The projected extras are Daniil Miromanov, Jake Bean and Adam Klapka.

Y’know who’s been really good lately? The Flames’ fourth line. We’ve seen three games of the new-look combination of Ryan Lomberg, Kevin Rooney and Martin Pospisil… and they’ve scored twice and generally been a huge positive force, a pretty big turnaround from much of recent fourth line history. And considering the Flames are entering the make-or-break part of their calendar, it’s a good time for the Flames to have some good depth performances.

We’ve seen some good performances on past Florida trips by past Lightning and Panther players, so keep an eye on Huberdeau, Coleman and Weegar this evening.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Jake Guentzel – Brayden Point – Nikita Kucherov
Brandon Hagel – Anthony Cirelli – Zemgus Girgensons
Mitchell Chaffee – Nick Paul – Gage Goncalves
Michael Eyssimont – Luke Glendening – Nick Perbix

Victor Hedman – J.J. Moser
Ryan McDonagh – Erik Cernak
Emil Lilleberg – Darren Raddysh

We’re projecting Andrei Vasilevskiy as the Lightning starter in goal, backed up by Jonas Johansson. The lone Tampa extra is Nick Perbix, a product of their tenuous salary cap position.

The Lightning are, once again, a pretty formidable hockey club. They’re third in the Atlantic Division, four points behind Toronto for top spot, and they’ve got a four point cushion on Detroit in the first wild card spot. They’ve got some breathing room, but they’re not home-and-cooled yet. They’re not a juggernaut like past Tampa clubs, but they’re a really tough night at the office; their visit to Calgary did not go smoothly for the Flames at all.

The Flames are without Anthony Mantha and Justin Kirkland.

The Lightning are healthy.

This is the season series finale between the Flames and Lightning. Tampa drubbed the Flames by an 8-3 score in their meeting in Calgary back in December.