Having won three of their first four games on their lengthy eastern road trip, the Calgary Flames (29-19-8) face a big measuring stick in the form of the very strong Boston Bruins (34-12-8). The Flames have played well of late, winning four of their last five since a sloppy stretch of games at home. The Bruins have also been very good, winning five of six in February – with their one loss being an uncharacteristically flat game against Buffalo. Missing their top netminder Mike Smith for an unspecified amount of time, can the Flames keep their road momentum going and creep closer to a playoff berth?
The game starts just after 5 p.m. MT on Sportsnet West and Sportsnet 960 The Fan.
The Flames
Projected lines, courtesy of Daily Faceoff:
Gaudreau – Monahan (A) – Ferland
Tkachuk – Backlund (A) – Frolik
Bennett – Jankowski – Hathaway
Lomberg – Stajan – Lazar
Giordano (C) – Hamilton
Brodie – Hamonic
Kulak – Stone
David Rittich starts for the Flames. He’s 5-1-2 with a 2.20 goals against average and .927 save percentage. He’s backed up by Jon Gillies. The expected healthy scratches are Matt Bartkowski and Marek Hrivik. The good news from this morning is that Smith is day-to-day with his lower-body injury, so he’ll be back relatively shortly.
The Flames are without one of their most valuable players in Smith, but Johnny Gaudreau has been dynamite lately. He was named the NHL’s Second Star for the past week. He sits third in the NHL in scoring heading into tonight’s action with 66 points, just five points behind Nikita Kucherov for the lead. Gaudreau is on pace for 97 points, which would be the best Flames single season offensive performance since Jarome Iginla netted 98 points back in 2007-08.
For those of you who like drafting, here’s a fun tidbit: the Flames’ top five goal-scorers this season are all home-grown draft picks (Gaudreau, Micheal Ferland, Matthew Tkachuk, Sean Monahan, and Mikael Backlund).
The Bruins
Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:
Marchand – Bergeron – Pastrnak
DeBrusk – Krejci – Spooner
Heinen – Nash – Backes
Schaller – Kuraly – Acciari
Chara – McAvoy
Krug – Carlo
Grzelcyk – McQuaid
Tuukka Rask starts for Boston. He’s 22-9-4 with a 2.11 goals against average and .924 save percentage. Anton Khodobin backs up – his numbers are almost as good as Rask’s. The healthy scratch is Paul Postma. Frank Vatrano and Kevan Miller are nursing injuries.
The Bruins were solid but not amazing last season, but did a good job working in some youngsters into their lineup. This season, they’ve taken a massive leap forward. They have a really effective mixture of savvy veterans and hungry youngsters. They have five rookies in their lineup, and they’re in important spots in their lineup. The emergence of these rookies has really made the Bruins dangerous, because line-matching is very, very tough to do.
Injury Report
Flames: Daniel Pribyl (knee), Kris Versteeg (hip) and Troy Brouwer (facial fracture) are on the injured reserve. Mike Smith (lower-body) is hurt but on the active roster.
Boston: Anders Bjork (upper-body) is on the injured reserve. Frank Vatrano (lower-body) and Kevan Miller (undisclosed) are hurt but on the active roster.
When Last We Met
These teams haven’t played each other yet this season. They split the two meetings last season, with the road team winning each game. They’ll meet again on Monday in Calgary.
The Numbers
| CGY | BOS | |
| Wins | 28 | 34 |
| Points | 66 | 76 |
| Adjusted Corsi | 52.4% | 54.4% |
| Power Play | 17.0% | 21.6% |
| Penalty Kill | 79.6% | 83.8% |
Know Thy Enemy
Here are some wicked smart people that tweet Bruins hockey:
Sum It Up
It’s the fifth game of a six game road trip, and a big test for the Flames as they face one of the best teams in the entire league without one of their best players.
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As much as it sucks to get scored on that reaction from Rittich was pretty funny.
I think it’s time for Fro to move down a line.
Switch out Frolik and Bennett.
He’s struggled a bit since coming back from injury.
4 to 2, with 10 minutes to go, this game is over
I don’t know why we’re doing multi-instalment articles on FN about firing Gulutzan when it’s clearly Dave Cameron who is the abject , unqualified failure among our coaching staff. He should be fired tonight.
Man, that’s how you play with a lead. Boston is in our end way ore than we’re in theirs
Bostons pk is more dangerous than our pp
Whoa Dion gone
Chara does not even look human. Where are the men in black.
Seriously pulling with 4 mins? Wtf.
Knew an empty netter was going to happen righr after. Ugh.
So stupid….gel boy
Need two goals to tie and you haven’t been competitive in two periods.
Kings just picked up Phaneuf……interesting
Good deal for Ottawa to get rid of that contract
Hey they picked up Regehr before, I guess they have a thing for slow former Flames defencemen.
That’s how you get rid of a crap contract…you pick up a replacement crap contract in Gaborik
Odd, since their need seem to offence more than defence, but then again, they got spanked 7-3 tonight by CAR.
Luckily the Ducks also lost in regulation tonight. So, the Flames hang on to third for another night.
Carolina, Detroit, Boston. One of those, ain’t like the other. The Kings and Ducks missed a big opportunity tonight.
Through my eyes, the Bruins are the best opponent the Flames have played this year. Sometimes you just run into a better team, and there isn’t anything you can do about it.
Heard a stat that Backlund has two points and no goals in his entire NHL career against the Bruins. Must come down with the Boston flu when the two teams play….
yup
Let’s hope the Flames pay them back on Monday (when I can witness a win in person!)
Hey GG. Did you notice not one of the Bruins players were as slow and useless as Stajan
Stajan is useless
2nd line backs and Frolik both minus 3 for the night. They sure did not come to play tonight! Time to switch up the lines or we are not making playoffs! Brodie brutal again!
It’s like the Flames unsuccessfully attempted to do what the Islanders unsuccessfully tried to do on Sunday: sit on an early lead. Silver lining is we lost to a good team that’s clearly firing on all cylinders these days.
Oh yes and please fire Dave Cameron now. He is useless.
Don’t agree. Boston fore-checked aggressively with speed and the Flames couldn’t handle it all night. They were also great with their sticks and positional play. They were clearly the better team all night and deserved the win. GG would do well to take notes because the Flames would be much better if they played the same… sigh.
Gross!
The announcers really downplayed the weak power plays
Why o WHY do we ever bother pulling the goalie??? They can’t score on the PP but somehow GG continues to think they will score without a goalie in net? I bet the average time it takes for the other team to score on the EN is 20secs. It happens every freaking time!
How would you suggest they score two goals in four minutes?
I would have done the same thing as GG, it gives you a small shot to win. Not pulling your goalie needing 2 against the Bruins basically gives you zero shot to win.
They stand a better chance 5vs5. If that’s not clear by now I don’t know what is
why with two defenders in Stockton just like 60 points are they not playing for Calgary
With Phaneuf moving to LA, maybe it opens the doors to move a defence man. Time to move Brodie to the Leafs for a skilled winger.
Why would Toronto want to make any moves? That’s a pretty good team over there.
You play 25 to 28 minutes a game you’re going to get tired I think it’s catching up to them
Gotta love the Bergeron.🙄
Great player – both ends of the ice. Hope the young centres on Calgary took notice.
Did you see the picture of Charlie McAvoy standing next to Tkachuk as well? He’s built like a tank, his upper body looked about 3 feet thick.
Bergeron made an amazing play just to get the play started in his own zone for his first. Best line in hockey, imo. Bergeron and Marchand on the PK also gives you fits.
Just checking in and disappoint to see they lost… looks like Boston just took over. And again we give up a PPG and can’t score on the PP. We have a really bad record in Boston but being up 2 – 1, thought there was a chance.
Is it just me, or was that the worst game I’ve seen Backlund/Frolik play since they’ve been together?
Well……… at least the Ducks & the Kings Both Lost Tonight too~! Go VGN & ARI… Man Fro Sure had a Bad Night tonight… This kinda shows where the Flames are and where they Need to get too! Lots of work and Some Changes Needed to get there! GFG~!~!
No miracle goal by Brodie tonight. I don’t even think with Smith between the pipes in tonight’s game would have helped. Bruins are definitely a team that is looking good and the Flames had no answer for. All these melt downs in the third period and the lack of PP efficiency will be this team’s downfall and direct result why they will fail to make the playoffs. They just don’t play consistently enough to convince me otherwise. Many heads will roll by season’s end.
Gonna agree there. Turning point of the game for me was the second period flames piwerplay where they looked yseless. Boston actually had a better chance of scoring. Almost immediately after that Boston tied it and never looked back.