After five games on the road, the Calgary Flames (26-34-7, 59 points) are back at home and looking to keep marching towards the end of the season. They’ll open a six game homestand when they host the St. Louis Blues (27-30-10, 64 points), in a game that could have implications for both the draft lottery and the Blues’ playoff hopes.

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

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

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

Kevin Bahl – Zach Whitecloud
Olli Maatta – Hunter Brzustewicz
Joel Hanley – Zayne Parekh

We’re projecting Devin Cooley to start in net, backed up by Dustin Wolf. The projected extras are Brayden Pachal, Tyson Gross, John Beecher and Ryan Lomberg. Per Sportsnet’s Pat Steinberg, newbie Tyson Gross skated with the team (wearing #39) for the first time on Wednesday but isn’t expected to play yet.

The Flames are a depleted group, we’ll admit. They’ve worked hard and they know the way they have to play. But with the players they’ve lost this season, it’s a bit of an uphill battle for them to generate offence or to bury chances. They’ve won twice in six games since the trade deadline. But a few of their younger players have played quite well – looking at you, Matvei Gridin and Matt Coronato – and so have more veteran players like Joel Farabee and Blake Coleman.

Right now, it’s all about the process, not necessarily the results.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Dylan Holloway – Robert Thomas – Jimmy Snuggerud
Jake Neighbours – Pavel Buchnevich – Jordan Kyrou
Pius Suter – Dalibor Dvorsky – Jonatan Berggren
Alexey Toropchenko – Jack Finley – Oskar Sundqvist

Philip Broberg – Logan Mailloux
Theo Lindstein – Colton Parayko
Cam Fowler – Justin Holl

We’re projecting Joel Hofer to start in net, backed up by Jordan Binnington. The Blues’ projected extras are Jonathan Drouin, Otto Stenberg, Nathan Walker, Tyler Tucker and Matthew Kessel.

The Blues are seven points back of the final wild card playoff spot in the Western Conference. Their playoff hopes are not dead, but they’re on life support. The Blues need to string together some wins and get some luck from teams ahead of them losing a bunch. Jimmy Snuggerud was named third star of the week by the NHL last week, but they need more performances like that, from more players, if they want to play past Game 82.

The Flames are without Sam Honzek, Jake Bean, Jonathan Huberdeau and Yan Kuznetsov.

The Blues are without Torey Krug.

This is the third and final meeting between these teams this season. The Blues won each of those games – one in Calgary and one in St. Louis. They’re going for the sweep.