For the third time over the last two weeks, the Calgary Flames (33-38-9, 75 points) will meet the league-leading Colorado Avalanche (53-16-11, 117 points), this time in Calgary rather than in Denver. The Avalanche are on the back half of a back-to-back, but are the league’s best outfit trying to get set for the post-season. This could be a challenging outing for the Flames, even on home ice.

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

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Blake Coleman – Mikael Backlund – Joel Farabee
Matvei Gridin – Morgan Frost – Victor Olofsson
Rory Kerins – Connor Zary – Adam Klapka
Yegor Sharangovich – Tyson Gross – Aydar Suniev

Zayne Parekh – Zach Whitecloud
Olli Maatta – Hunter Brzustewicz
Abram Wiebe – Brayden Pachal

We’re projecting Dustin Wolf to start in net, backed up by Devin Cooley. The projected healthy extras for Calgary look like John Beecher, Ryan Lomberg, Ryan Strome and Martin Pospisil. Matt Coronato is a bit banged up and won’t play, but Matvei Gridin is back after missing last game due to an illness.

Since the trade deadline, the Flames are 9-8-2. At home, they’re 7-0-1. On the road, they’re 2-8-1. It’s a weird juxtaposition, but it speaks to the fact that the Flames are not without talented players… but they have depth and roster balance issues that can be exploited on the road.

But they’re also a team that will need to be sharp to hold a powerful Colorado team at bad. They did pretty well in their 3-1 loss on the recent road trip… but not as well in the 9-2 loss that preceded it.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Artturi Lehkonen – Nathan MacKinnon – Martin Necas
Gabriel Landeskog – Brock Nelson – Valeri Nichushkin
Ross Colton – Nicolas Roy – Joel Kiviranta
Parker Kelly – Jack Drury – Logan O’Connor

Devin Toews – Sam Malinski
Brett Kulak – Brent Burns
Jack Ahcan – Nick Blankenburg

It’s the second half of a back-to-back for Colorado, so we’re anticipating Mackenzie Blackwood to start in net, backed up by Scott Wedgewood. Their lone healthy extra on Monday night was Zakhar Bardakov.

It’s the second half of a back-to-back set for the Avalanche, as they beat Edmonton in a shootout on Monday and then flew to Calgary. While former Flames alternate captain Nazem Kadri won’t be in the lineup, he’s on the trip and will be in the building, so we suspect he gets some sort of tribute video at some point in the evening.

The Flames are without Sam Honzek, Jake Bean, Jonathan Huberdeau, Joel Hanley, Kevin Bahl, Yan Kuznetsov and Matt Coronato.

The Avalanche are without Nazem Kadri, Cale Makar and Josh Manson.

This is the third and final meeting between these teams this season. Colorado won each of the first two meetings by a combined 12-3 score.