After three losses in a row (one in a shootout), the Calgary Flames (15-6-6, 36 points) are hoping to get back into the win column on Saturday night. But they face a big test in the visiting Boston Bruins (13-8-2, 28 points), a savvy team that beat Edmonton on Thursday night.
This game gets going at 8 p.m. MT. You can catch the action on Sportsnet West and City TV and Sportsnet 960 The Fan. The game will start a little late, as the Flames will honour Milan Lucic for reaching 1,000th games last season before puck drop.

The Flames

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:
Gaudreau – Lindholm – Tkachuk
Coleman – Backlund – Mangiapane
Lucic- Monahan – Dube
Richardson – Ruzicka – Lewis
Hanifin – Andersson
Kylington – Tanev
Zadorov – Gudbranson
Jacob Markström likely starts, backed up by Dan Vladar. The projected extras are Michael Stone and Byron Froese.
The bad news is the Flames have lost three in a row, including a pretty blah outing against San Jose where they gave away a 3-1 lead midway through the game. The good news is that the other two losses were so-called measuring stick games against very good teams from Vegas and Carolina. The Flames only got one point out of those two games, but they were pretty good and very much in the fabric of those games despite losing. If the Flames can tidy up a few aspects of their game – their defensive zone exits and their power play, in particular – they should be in good shape going forward.

The Bruins

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:
Marchand – Bergeron – Pastrnak
Hall – Coyle – Smith
DeBrusk – Haula – Foligno
Blidh – Frederic – Kuhlman
Forbort – McAvoy
Grzelcyk – Moore
Reilly – Clifton
After splitting the back-to-back in Vancouver and Edmonton, expect Jeremy Swayman to start for the Bs (backed up by Linus Ullmark). Curtis Lazar and Jack Ahcan look to be the extras.
The Bruins are missing some bodies right now, but they’re a tough out. They were quite good against Edmonton on Thursday, playing a smart, structured game in their second game in as many nights. The Flames tend to have issues with teams that play with a ton of structure, so they’ll need to play a patient game to get two points.

The numbers

Calgary
Boston
Wins
15
13
Points (%)
36 (.667)
28 (.609)
Adjusted Corsi For
56.6%
54.5%
Expected Goals For
53.5%
56.1%
Power Play
22.4%
25.7%
Penalty Kill
85.4%
82.4%

Unfit to play

The Flames are without Brett Ritchie and Tyler Pitlick.
The Bruins are without Jakub Zboril, Tomas Nosek and Brandon Carlo.

When last we met

The Flames played in Boston last month and beat the Bruins 4-0 via a Dan Vladar shutout.

Know thy enemy

Your recommended Twitter follows for tonight’s contest:
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