Friends, welcome back. After being idle for the better part of five months, the National Hockey League returns this evening with meaningful games in the form of the Stanley Cup Qualifiers, a round feeding into the traditional Stanley Cup playoffs. The Calgary Flames will tangle with the Winnipeg Jets in a best-of-five series with the winner advancing and the losers going into the draft lottery.
The puck drops for Game 1 at 8:30 p.m. MT on Sportsnet’s national feed and CBC (with Chris Cuthbert and Louie DeBrusk) and Sportsnet 960 The Fan (with Derek Wills and Peter Loubardias).