Utah Hockey Club (16-15-6) at Calgary Flames (18-12-7)
When: Thursday, 7 p.m. MT, Saddledome
TV: Sportsnet West Radio: Sportsnet 960 The Fan
Odds: Flames -104, Utah -115
The buzz
The Utah Hockey Club is young, hungry and still very much in the mix in the Western Conference playoff picture.
If you’re the Calgary Flames and you’re coming off one of your best performances of the season in your New Year’s Eve win over the Vancouver Canucks, there’d be no better time to keep the momentum going.
Hence the intrigue heading into Thursday night’s matchup between the Flames and Utah at the Saddledome. It’s not a must-win for either team, we’re not even half-way through the NHL schedule so it’s still way too early for that sort of talk, but winning on Thursday would be big for both teams.
For the Flames, it’s all about picking up points right now. They’ll enter Thursday evening sitting in the West’s second Wild Card position, with the Canucks, St. Louis Blues and Utah close behind.
And for Utah, who won the two teams’ previous matchup by a lopsided 5-1 scoreline in Salt Lake back in October, it’s a chance to keep pace with the pack.
The quote
“We’re happy with the way our game is trending and maybe the most important thing for me is the players understand the style that we have to play and they’ve really bought into it. It’s not an easy way to play but they realize when they are playing that way and when they’re not, which is important to me. It’s turning not into a coaches’ message anymore, it’s more about the players, which is a great thing.”
- Flames head coach Ryan Huska on where his team is at as the calendar turns to 2025
The news
- Check in after morning skate for all the up-to-date information on who is and isn’t playing for both teams.
- While Utah enters Thursday’s contest on a four-game losing streak, Logan Cooley is on a personal hot-streak. He assisted on Jake McBain’s goal against the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night, extending his road point streak to 11 games.
- Utah has also scored a power-play goal in each of their last seven games, so they’ll present a challenge for a Flames penalty-kill that has been better recently but still ranks 29th in the lead (71.8%)
- Assuming they come up with a new team name this summer, Thursday could mark the only ever official visit to the Saddledome by the “Utah Hockey Club.”
The projected lineup
Forwards
Huberdeau-Kadri-Pospisil
Coleman-Backlund-Coronato
Pelletier-Zary-Sharangovich
Lomberg-Rooney-Duehr
Defence
Bahl-Andersson
Hanley-Weegar
Bean-Pachal
Goalies
Vladar
Wolf
The injuries
Flames forwards Justin Kirkland and Anthony Mantha are both recovering from season-ending knee surgeries.