Pre-Season FGD: Mile High Tune-Up (7pm MT)

After a couple days off, it’s time for another pre-season match-up for the Calgary Flames.

For what’s technically the third of eight exhibitions for the gentlemen in red, they head down to Denver to take on Patrick Roy’s Colorado Avalanche. And given the recent injury news regarding T.J. Brodie, pay particular attention to the blueliners making the trip south.

The game goes at 7pm MT and you can hear it on Sportsnet 960 The Fan!

Per your pal (and ours) Pat Steinberg, lines and pairings from yesterday’s practice (and since confirmed by the Flames site today):

Ferland – Stajan – Jones
Raymond – Bennett – Jooris
Elson – Granlund – Poirier
Colborne – Shore – Bollig

Wilson – Andersson
Kulak – Nakladal
Morrison – Stevenson

Ortio
Simpson

It was apparently unclear yesterday which pairing wouldn’t dress. My guess is Sieloff/Kanzig, but I am just guessing. Wilson, Kulak, Nakladal and Morrison are all contenders to get NHL games in now that both Ladislav Smid and T.J. Brodie are on the shelf for a bit.

One of three contenders for two jobs in Calgary in net, Joni Ortio is slated to go the distance tonight in net. And he’ll do so with an AHL defense. Good luck, Joni. Beyond that, it’s a (mostly) NHL roster in terms of forwards.

There’s not a ton of details regarding Colorado’s line-up tonight, but Sportsnet’s Derek Wills tweeted out the roster sheet.

Goalies: Reto Berra (starting) and Calvin Pickard

Defense: Nick Holden, Chris Bigras, Erik Johnson, Duncan Siemens, Brad Stuart, Zach Redmond, Francois Beauchemen and Mat Clark

Forwards: Jack Skille, John Mitchell, Matt Duchene, Ben Street, Marc-Andre Cliche, Mikhail Grigorenko, Andreas Martinsen, Andrew Agozzino, Nathan MacKinnon, Cody McLeod, Patrick Bordeleau and Borna Rendulic

So, it’s a pretty NHL-esque group, aside from Reto Berra in net. No Jarome Iginla tonight, as apparently he’s nursing a minor injury of some kind.

Colorado’s quietly amassed a really good group of prospects. You always hear about Nathan MacKinnon, with good reason, but Grigorenko, Bigras and Pickard are also pretty good.

The Flames have already lost two (close) pre-season games. But they’ve gotten some good performances out of their younger players. With a roster mostly full of younger players tonight, hopefully they can continue to get those good performances and that playing against NHLers forces them to pick up their games a bit.

That said, it’s entirely probable that Joni Ortio will be facing a lot of quality shots this evening. Good luck, Joni.