After a rough start to the regular season, the Calgary Flames (1-4-0, 2 points) will try to right the ship as they start a hectic part of their schedule. But they’ll face a tough foe in a tough building as they visit the Vegas Golden Knights (3-0-2, 8 points) at T-Mobile Arena!

Can the Flames take advantage of Jonathan Huberdeau’s return to topple a divisional foe? Or will their early woes continue? We’ll find out tonight!

Today’s broadcast begins at 8 p.m. MT on Sportsnet’s national feed, CBC, City TV and Sportsnet 960 The Fan.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Jonathan Huberdeau – Nazem Kadri – Joel Farabee
Yegor Sharangovich – Morgan Frost – Matt Coronato
Sam Honzek – Mikael Backlund – Blake Coleman
Ryan Lomberg – Connor Zary – Adam Klapka

Kevin Bahl – Rasmus Andersson
Joel Hanley – MacKenzie Weegar
Jake Bean – Zayne Parekh

Dustin Wolf starts in net for the Flames, making his first-ever appearance in Vegas. He’ll be backed up by Devin Cooley. The expected scratches are Brayden Pachal, Daniil Miromanov and Justin Kirkland.

After five games on the shelf with an undisclosed injury – suffered when he crashed head-first into the Vancouver goaltender in a pre-season game – Jonathan Huberdeau is back! His return caused some line shuffles, which was probably needed given how few goals the Flames have scored and how few games they’ve won. They’re currently in the midst of a four game losing skid and need to start piling up some wins if they want any hope of making the playoffs. (And yes, they want to make the playoffs.)

The Flames are 2-9-2 all-time in 13 trips to T-Mobile Arena. Their last two trips were 3-0 and 5-0 losses last season, both with Dan Vladar in net. Their last win in Vegas was on Jan. 13, 2024. So… they’re due, right?

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Ivan Barbashev – Jack Eichel – Mark Stone
Pavel Dorofeyev – Tomas Hertl – Mitch Marner
Brandon Saad – William Karlsson – Reilly Smith
Cole Reinhardt – Colton Sissons – Keegan Kolesar

Brayden McNabb – Shea Theodore
Ben Hutton – Zach Whitecloud
Jeremy Lauzon – Kaedan Korczak

We’re projecting Akira Schmid to start in net, backed up by Adin Hill. Vegas’ lone extra is Alexander Holtz.

So, Vegas is undefeated in regulation! They’ve won twice in regulation, once in extra time, and they’ve lost twice in extra time. They recently beat the Flames by a 4-2 score back on Tuesday in a game where the Flames were rock-solid but couldn’t hold a lead.

What can we say about the Golden Knights? They’re not invulnerable, but they’re a team that can definitely out-score their problems if you give them the time and space on the ice to do so.

The Flames are without Martin Pospisil.

The Golden Knights are without Alex Pietrangelo, Noah Hanifin and Brett Howden.

This is the second of four meetings between these Pacific Division foes this season. They’ll meet twice more – once in Calgary on Dec. 20 and again in Vegas on Apr. 2.

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