Rejoice, friends. The pre-season is almost over. The Calgary Flames line up this evening for their final meaningless game of the 2019-20 hockey calendar, this one a friendly against the Edmonton Oilers.

The puck drops at 7 p.m. MT and you can catch the action on Sportsnet 960 The Fan and the Flames’ social media sites.

Lines from morning skate (via Pat Steinberg):

Gaudreau – Monahan – Lindholm
Tkachuk – Backlund – Frolik
Mangiapane – Bennett – Lucic
Rieder – Jankowski – Czarnik

Giordano – Brodie
Hanifin – Hamonic
MacDonald – Andersson

David Rittich starts and will probably go the distance, backed up by Cam Talbot. Derek Ryan didn’t skate this morning due to illness. The healthy extras this evening are Oliver Kylington, Michael Stone, Dillon Dube, Zac Rinaldo and Alan Quine.

The Flames are hoping to get some consistency from the group, and it’s curious what they’ll get from a couple of their fringe bodies – prospective Flame Andrew MacDonald and unofficial actual Flame Tobias Rieder.

Guesswork lines based on practice and the lineup headed here:

Nygard – Draisaitl – Chiasson
Jurco – Haas – Gagner
Khaira – Sheahan – Archibald
Granlund – Cave – Kassian

Nurse – Larsson
Lagesson – Manning
Bear – Benning

The Oilers aren’t sending their best and brightest down here, but it’s a pretty NHL-ready group. Mikko Koskinen starts for the Oil and is expected to go the distance for them.

So, this is basically the Flames’ opening night roster, aside from no Derek Ryan. How do they look? Are there any holes? How do the special teams groups line up? Can the Flames put together a complete 60 minute effort against a group that is, on paper, inferior to them?