On Monday night, the Calgary Flames (25-31-7, 57 points) lost to the Washington Capitals. Meanwhile, the New York Rangers (25-30-8, 58 points) beat the Philadelphia Flyers. Now, they’re both headed to the Big Apple to clash in a game that could have fairly significant implications for May’s draft lottery. Two potentially disruptive points are on the line at Madison Square Garden!

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

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Blake Coleman – Morgan Frost – Joel Farabee
Connor Zary – Ryan Strome – Matvei Gridin
Victor Olofsson – Mikael Backlund – Matt Coronato
Ryan Lomberg – Yegor Sharangovich – Adam Klapka

Kevin Bahl – Yan Kuznetsov
Olli Maatta – Brayden Pachal
Joel Hanley – Zayne Parekh

We’re projecting Dustin Wolf to start in net, backed up by Devin Cooley. It’s a back-to-back, so we’re anticipating Zayne Parekh to rotate out and Hunter Brzustewicz to rotate in (for “load management” purposes). Martin Pospisil and John Beecher were extras on Monday, so we could see either (or both) rotate in. Zach Whitecloud is not on the trip, per Sportsnet’s Eric Francis, but could join the team later on.

The Flames began their five game road trip in Washington. They were really good in the second period, kinda okay early in the third period, and not especially good in the first period or the end of the third period. The Flames were a bit over-matched against the Capitals, but they battled. They’ll probably be a bit tuckered against the Rangers, but we suspect they’ll battle hard

Per Sportsnet’s Derek Wills, the Flames used a five-forward first power play unit in Monday’s morning skate, but didn’t get any opportunities to use it in Monday’s game. We’ll see if they can debut it against the Rangers.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Gabriel Perreault – Mika Zibanejad – Alexis Lafreniere
Will Cuylle – Vincent Trocheck – Jonny Brodzinski
Tye Kartye – Noah Laba – Conor Sheary
Adam Edstrom – Juuso Parssinen – Jaroslav Chmelar

Vladislav Gavrikov – Adam Fox
Will Borgen – Braden Schneider
Matthew Robertson – Urho Vaakanainen

We’re projecting Jonathan Quick to start in net, backed up by Igor Shesterkin. Monday’s extra skaters were Brendan Brisson and Vincent Iorio, so we’ll see if either rotate in. (Kinda fun: Wolf grew up watching Quick while he was with the Kings, so this could be a fun game for the both of them.)

The Rangers are also on a back-to-back, beating the Flyers in Philadelphia and then travelling to New York. They beat a decent Flyers team because these Rangers are not devoid of talent. This season has gone really poorly for them, but they’re a scrappy, talented team that for various reasons has been less than the sum of its parts this season.

The Flames are without Sam Honzek, Jake Bean, Jonathan Huberdeau and Zach Whitecloud.

The Rangers are without J.T. Miller and Matt Rempe.

This is the second and final meeting between these teams this season. The Flames beat the Rangers in Calgary back in October.