It’ll be a uniquely fun atmosphere inside the Scotiabank Saddledome on Wednesday night as the Calgary Flames (1-6-0, 2 points) host the Montreal Canadiens (5-2-0, 10 points) in the Habs’ second-last visit to the Saddledome!

These two teams clashed in two Stanley Cup Finals in the ‘Dome – in 1986 and 1989 – and the annual visits from the Canadiens feature one of sports’ best jersey match-ups, as well as a pretty festive atmosphere as long-time Montreal fans head to the ‘Dome to cheer on the bleu, blanc et rouge. Can the Flames take advantage of the unique vibe to get back into the win column?

Today’s broadcast begins at 6:30 p.m. MT on Sportsnet West and Sportsnet 960 The Fan.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

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

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

Dustin Wolf is projected to start in net, backed up by Devin Cooley. The projected extras for this evening are Brayden Pachal and Yegor Sharangovich, as noted by Sportsnet’s Pat Steinberg after an optional morning skate. (Thanks, Pat!)

The Flames are off to a franchise-worst start, with just two points to show for their first seven games. Their sixth consecutive loss, suffered on Monday, was an evening where they probably deserved a better fate. They played well. They were quite good at even strength. But they made just enough mistakes, and hit enough posts, that they ended up losing by a 2-1 score to Winnipeg.

It can feel like a team is lost in an endless forest during a losing skid, but if the Flames play another game like Monday’s, they’ll get a positive result more often than not. We know it doesn’t feel that way, but the Flames will win again. Eventually.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Cole Caufield – Nick Suzuki – Juraj Slafkovsky
Alex Newhook – Oliver Kapanen – Ivan Demidov
Josh Anderson – Jack Evans – Brendan Gallagher
Zack Bolduc – Joe Veleno – Joshua Roy

Mike Matheson – Noah Dobson
Jayden Struble – Lane Hutson
Arber Xhekaj – Alexandre Carrier

Jakub Dobes is expected to start, backed up by Sam Montembeault. (The Habs have been rotating goalies for the start of the season.) Their lone healthy extra player is Marc Del Gaizo.

The Habs are quietly building a really fun team. Dobes and Montembeault are a good tandem. Their blueline is missing Kaiden Guhle right now, but here’s the reigning Calder winner, Lane Hutson, and Noah Dobson and Mike Matheson. Up front, their top six is quite fun, and that’s even with them missing Patrik Laine and Kirby Dach.

Simply put, the Habs are a fun team to watch. And they’re going to rapidly become a big, big problem for the rest of the NHL as they grow as a group.

The Flames are without Martin Pospisil.

The Canadiens are without Kaiden Guhle, Patrik Laine and Kirby Dach.

This is the first of two meetings between these teams this season. They’ll close out the season series in Montreal in December.

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