Calgary Flames Game Day 57: A battle with the Bruins (7pm MT)

After snapping their losing skid on Monday, the Calgary Flames (26-25-5, 57 points) will seek to build some momentum and claw a bit closer to a playoff spot when they host the powerhouse Boston Bruins (34-12-11, 79 points). It’s the second half of a back-to-back for the boys from Beantown, who beat Edmonton on Wednesday evening. Can the Flames take advantage of some favourable scheduling and capture some more points?

The broadcast begins at 7 p.m. MT on Sportsnet West and One and Sportsnet 960 The Fan. The Flames opened as +115 underdogs against the Bruins on Betway.

Projected lines courtesy Daily Faceoff:

Huberdeau – Sharangovich – Kuzmenko
Zary – Kadri – Pospisil
Mangiapane – Backlund – Coleman
Hunt – Rooney – Duehr

Hanifin – Tanev
Weegar – Andersson
Kylington – Pachal

We’re projecting Jacob Markstrom to start in net, backed up by Dan Vladar. The projected extras are Jordan Oesterle and Dennis Gilbert. Per reports from an optional morning skate, Jakob Pelletier was on the ice but won’t be available for the locals this evening.

Ryan Huska shuffled the lines a bit to start Monday’s game, including using Connor Zary at centre briefly, before re-shuffling in the second period and banishing Andrei Kuzmenko to the fourth line. All indications are the lines will be reset back to their previous state against Boston… but how much leash will Kuzmenko get? We’ll see.

Oliver Kylington scored a pretty nice goal against Winnipeg, and his game and confidence seem to be growing nicely. Keep an eye on him against Boston.

Projected lines courtesy Daily Faceoff:

We’re projecting Linus Ullmark to start in net, backed up by Jeremy Swayman. Their lone healthy extra against Edmonton was Kevin Shattenkirk, but since Matt Grzelcyk left that game with an injury, we’re assuming that Shattenkirk plays in his place.

Boston began a four-game western swing on Wednesday night in scenic Edmonton. They won in overtime by a 6-5 score in a game that, quite frankly, ruled. It had everything! Fights! Goals! Dramatic swings of momentum! It was a slugfest between two powerhouse teams. It seems reasonable to assume that Boston could be a bit drained after that craziness, even if they’re pretty grumpy about their home loss to Calgary two weeks back.

We don’t know if any game against Boston can be considered a scheduled win, but the Flames have a chance to take advantage of the situation if they can get to their game faster than Boston can.

The Flames are without Dillon Dube, A.J. Greer and Jakob Pelletier.

The Bruins are without Milan Lucic, Matthew Poitras, Jakub Lauko, Hampus Lindholm and Matt Grzelcyk.

This is the second and final meeting between these two teams. The Flames beat Boston by a 4-1 score at the beginning of this month.