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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We got this GFG
Note to Ryan Lomberg: No, you really don’t want to challenge Zdeno Chara to a fight.
He could punch him in the knees and make him fall down
I’m surprised he’s in the lineup. I guess he didn’t get his face broken.
In Lomberg’s pregame interview today he was laughing about his latest fight. The kid is a pure adrenaline junkie. He likes throwing punches, and doesn’t care if he gets hit – in fact he probably enjoys it.
He’s actually got some skills too. He’s a very fast skater, decent hands and can play all 3 forward positions. Huska was using him on the PK and some PP time in Stockton.
He’s afraid on nobody and brings it every shift, every night. Super cheap $710K contract for this year and next. Don’t sleep on this guy, he’s everything you want in a 4th line ball of energy. Gulutzan already loves Lomberg, and I’m sure he’s a hit in the dressing room.
Good post. And I agree. Lomberg is a keeper. Perfect extra forward to have around.
@Everton
Small sample size to be using the word; “keeper” , don’t you think?
Below; meant “keeper” in the organization. Like Hathaway. At least in my opinion.
Wasn’t that long ago when much the same was being said about Hathaway. Now all the talk about Hathaway is as a throw-in in a trade or a demotion. At least give Lomberg some more games to see what he’s got.
Going to be a tough game. The key is going to be to stay solid 5 on 5 while actually making an impact on special teams. I don’t think goaltending will be an issue, Rittich is very solid. It’s up to the players to have that killer instinct to score goals.
Having a hard time seeing Lomberg in instead of Hrivik. Like the guy, but c’mon. He really has added nothing except for a poor decision for dance partner.
I agree. We need more scoring depth.
Lomberg and lazar clicked for a beauty against NYR
Lomberg has more actual skills and hockey IQ than people think. He isn’t completely out of control out there, and he knows if he takes a stupid penalty he might be sitting next game. I like him a lot.
Again… Agreed. He’s a speedy skater.
GG also spoke the next day about the energy on the bench and in the room after that fight. Against the odds and losing can still get blood pumping.
And via one hell of a pass, too. You also can’t take away the fact that he has a tonne of speed, and uses it well to disrupt the opposition.
He did make that hail mary pass to Lazar though.
I think he’s added more than Hrivik, up here. But that’s my view.
I agree, everton. Hrivik is a 26 year old tweener. Hrivik is still an option at 4C next year. But Lomberg is 23, with 3 games (and 2 minutes) on his NHL resume. Even though he doesn’t require waivers I would keep him up for the rest of the season. Broken record time…but what more do you want from a cheap, fast, ball of plasma, give it your all winger banging away on your 4th line? Not much as far as I can see.
There’s a fair chance Hrivik’s playing back home, next season. Lomberg will be in the organization. He’s a far better extra forward then “Freddie”.
Let’s see: He has points, Hrivik has none. He has super speed, Hrivik is just average. He has toughness, Hrivik does not. He has intangibles, bringing it every night and doing anything it takes to win, Hrivik fills in adequately but brings none of the above. Easy to see why he’s a new GG and team favourite….
Couple of years ago, Jim Rutherford started making trades and moves that, on paper, looked really bad. I was felling kind of bad for the Pens. Sid was looking old. Things were bleak. Then they won the cup(s). I get that same feeling with Boston. Trading Dougie, Seguin, strange moves, no name drafting. Now who’s laughing. I’ll admit that I was way wrong. Makes me wonder what our Flames need. What does stand out in both models is, as pointed out, a mix of solid vets and hungry newcomers. We’ve been doing that a bit lately with the Stockton influx and Brouwer sitting (sorry Troy). More please.
Boston is doing well in spite of those moves, not because of them. Correlation does not equal causation. For every success story like this, you have myriads of counter examples of bad moves sinking the team. E.g. EDM
I agree. If they could have Hamilton or Seguin back they do that in a Boston beat.
Yup. Bergeron, Seguin and Krejci as your 1,2,3 centers would be ridiculous….. add Dougie to push a guy like Carlo to the bottom pair…. Salary cap problems sure but man…would be a scary team…..
Boston bailed on the worst GM in the league. Now ChiaPet is Edmonton’s problem, which is a crying shame.
But is also a good thing for us. The longer he bungles the Oilers up north, the less chance we have to worry about Oiler fans winning a cup.
crying shame? cmon Mick, seeing the welfare disgraces fold like a dollar store tent is a glorious thing, a thing of beauty.
I feel very confident w/Rittich in the crease, and the boys playing well on the road. Looking for another in the win column!
Glad i was right about Smith and not listening to all the “woe is the Flames”.
Dave stands tall next 3 or 4 games, easing a lot of needless panic, starting tonight. Keep winning Flames and make Troy realize he is a useless burden to this team and maybe he goes away quietly.
Who do I report these annoying mobile pop ups to? This is ridiculously annoying.
Sour powdered milk dud that is slowly turning into a beet. He won’t do anything, he can’t admit failure at the revamp of the comment protocol.
[email protected]
Hey Lommy, Chara tonight?
Lol. What’s he going to do? Flying headbutt to the junk??
Hey Rancourt – it would be nice if you could get the words to our National Anthem correct. Sheesh – time to put you back in the hotel lounge.
True that. That’s about as bad as it gets.
great tribute to a great old school team. Bruins will always be my 2nd fave team.
Are you old enough to remember when Stan Jonathon broke Pierre Bouchard’s face? That was ugly, but you didn’t mess with that team. Talk about team toughness. Wow
I have 2 granddaughters so yah. Old time hockey, good memories.
Brodie…what the hell are you doing? C’mon man.
Benett did something!
Yes!! Great work by Bennett earlier in the shift, and solid fore-checking led to that goal.
Surprised Hathaway didn’t get an assist on Bennett’s goal
They added an assist to Hathaway finally.
Benny!!!
Flames will not be able to sit back and play the silly possession game tonight.
Good job Hamonic, and Ferland is in hitting mode tonight.
Stone got one in too, could be exciting.
…and Janko. Great game so far.
Chara better watch out chatting with Tkachuk, Lomberg might take offense.
I am liking the energy game being displayed right now. Keep it up boys.
Lets hope they don’t try to sit on a one goal lead.
GG might be double shifting JG again…
It was just the confusion introduced by the line mix up caused by the power play.
Great start for the Flames. This has a playoff atmosphere to it.
Being cheeky here… But are we still firing GG and his staff?? 😉
Ask again in 2 hours ?
First order of business in off season i would hope.
only good thing i can say lately is “seems” they are letting the players play and be creative again (eased off on their “shell” system)
But looking at this 2nd period there definitely needs to be some push from someone other than JG
Good first period… good to see Benny contribute with a goal… maybe all the recent complaining about him has somehow had a result! Carolina is up 3 – 0 on LA so early returns are looking positive. Long way to go though. And unfortunately I won’t be able to follow most of the rest of the game so GFG!
I just watched the highlight of the first Bruin goal and although I’m not a fan of Brodie, that goal rests with Frolik. The puck was passed up the boards and Frolik allowed the Bruin winger to step right in front of him to take the puck. The winger needs to feel pressure and protect the puck in that instance, much like a football receiver coming back to a pass, and Frolik simply didn’t allowing the Boston player an easy play.
Am I the only one that scrolls the comment section looking for BTF 2.0 and hit the trash button on him before you even read his comment.
Monahan not having a good game.
The truculence boys have been great. Hathaway, Bennett, Ferland, Giordano
Rittich great in net again, he reads the play so well.
…must be a mind reader. Posted that before they had the 3 player split screen.