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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Some good hustle by Hathaway and Bennett on those last few shifts. Nice to see !
Chara…sit down what are you complain’ about. Some of the other calls both ways have been marginal, not that one.
Hmmm we appear to be once again afflicted with that strange disease which robs us of our ability to shoot pucks at the opposing team’s goal.
Aaah, the power play cure
Brodie, Brodie, Brodie…
No kidding. Seems like every game..bad break out pass, terrible swoop at the attacking player and then left two Bruins un-molested in front..
He never could play defense very well, but he’s getting worse. Too many quick passes to nobody in particular…except the opposition.
I completely agree, but then he puts up a highlight assist and thats all a lot of people seem to remember. Very frustrating. Take off the rose colored glasses FN. I would love if the Flames moved him before others in the league realize his doenfalls and he loses value. I eould rather see RasAndy make those mistakes, at least he would have an excuse, un-like Brodie.
Glad Hathaway got that assist on Bennett’s goal. He did all the work on that one.
THat goal is on the first PP unit! They played 1:45 and then bailed out and left their buddies out to dry.
Frustration….
Please be ok.
Ok, maybe he sold that one a bit.
That was shades of Ron Cey leaning out over the plate and getting plunked play by Rittich.
Come on boys, take back the lead!
We have this GFG
Can’t even get in the zone in a minute of PP!
Move the puck North South, East west not around the outside.
Jab, Jab, Punch! not, jab, jab, jab, jab, jab,jab.
Looks like the pp is going to be the death of us again.
It is looking better with Hamilton out there. The Bruins PK is excellent.
Hopefully the Flames put up a better effort next period. If it wasn’t for Rittich, we would be getting spanked.
Boston showing us how it’s done.
Backlund blew a tire…that’s what lead to that one
Someone needs to explain why the Flames best defensive line has the most penalty minutes, cause I just can’t figure it out.
This has become a bit embarrassing
No heart, no team identity! Take the puck to the net and will the damn thing in the net!
Jeez that pp is awful
This game is over pull the goalie let gillies get a few minutes of experience Flames are being schooled tonight
All our best players on the PP and ZERO shots, playoffs?
We have this GFG
Just get shots on the net. Lesson learned?
Okay, the game plan is to hit everything, but where did the skating go. The Flames aren’t skating and look like crap because of it
Not Rittich’s fault, just crap Dzone coverage
He’s playing good too bad the rest of the team isn’t