One of hockey’s fiercest rivalries is back on Hockey Night in Canada, featuring a pair of teams hoping to get back into the playoff limelight before too long. The Calgary Flames (30-34-8, 68 points) host the Vancouver Canucks (21-42-8, 50 points) at the Saddledome on a Saturday night. The Canucks have nearly cemented their 32nd-place standing, while the Flames are quietly playing some of their best hockey in weeks. Can the Flames pad their stats on a pretty depleted Canucks squad?

Today’s broadcast begins at 8 p.m. MT on CBC, Sportsnet’s national feed, City TV 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 – Victor Olofsson
Brennan Othmann – Tyson Gross – Adam Klapka

Kevin Bahl – Zach Whitecloud
Olli Maatta – Hunter Brzustewicz
Brayden Pachal – Zayne Parekh

We’re projecting Dustin Wolf to start in net, backed up by Devin Cooley. The projected healthy extras are John Beecher, Ryan Lomberg and Martin Pospisil. It looks like Connor Zary and Yan Kuznetsov remain out day-to-day. Brennan Othmann makes his Flames debut, wearing #78.

The Flames seem like a pretty relaxed group right now. The other shoe has dropped, some veterans are gone and the trade deadline is done with, and the kids are playing. Heck, the kids are playing well, the players acquired at the deadline are playing well, and the Flames are a team that just does their thing and plays a pretty simple, structured game.

Since the trade deadline, the Flames are 6-4-1. They’re rock-solid at five-on-five, but their special teams have been a bit leaky on both sides. If they can keep things at even strength, they’re a fairly tough out.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Drew O’Connor – Elias Pettersson – Evander Kane
Liam Ohgren – Marco Rossi – Brock Boeser
Jake DeBrusk – Teddy Blueger – Linus Karlsson
Nils Hoglander – Aatu Raty – Curtis Douglas

Zeev Buium – Filip Hronek
Marcus Pettersson – Tom Willander
Victor Mancini – Pierre-Olivier Joseph

Per head coach Adam Foote, Nikita Tolopilo starts in net, backed up by Kevin Lankinen. The projected extras are Elias Pettersson (the defenceman) and Max Sasson.

The Canucks are 32nd overall and are a shoo-in for the best odds for the upcoming draft lottery. They’re 15 points behind the NY Rangers, the 31st overall team. The Canucks don’t score much, they don’t defend well, and their kinda blah on both sides of special teams. They are a team that has gone through an utterly miserable year and they’re hoping to get some relief for their pain at the May 5 draft lottery. In the meantime: they’re just trying to muddle their way through their final 11 games.

The Flames are without Sam Honzek, Jake Bean, Jonathan Huberdeau, Yan Kuznetsov, Connor Zary and Joel Hanley.

The Canucks are without Thatcher Demko, Filip Chytil and Derek Forbort.

This is the third of three meetings between these teams this season. They split two meetings earlier this season in Vancouver. This is the 124th visit to the Saddledome by the Canucks; they’ll be back twice more in 2026-27. Only the Edmonton Oilers will make more visits to the Saddledome than Vancouver in the building’s history.