Game Day Thread: Bruins @ Flames

The Bruins are still on their road trip, out in western Canada, battling the Flames.
https://giphy.com/gifs/3MdXwFXg9GLqyaI7md/html5

The Bruins are now at 38-11-12, putting them 1st in the Atlantic, and 1st in the league, a mere 3 point ahead of the Tampa. And also 8 points ahead of Pittsburgh and the Caps.

Last time, on Bruins hockey…
The Bruins went to Edmonton, to face the Oilers. They would start off strong, controlling possession, in spite of having their lunch stolen on the faceoff dot, and go up by 1 goal in the 1st period, then the Oilers would answer in the 2nd period, evening out the shots, but it would take until the 3rd period to tie up the game.
However, they had the better 3-on-3 game, with David Pastrnak popping in the winning goal on a David Krecji stretch pass.
Bruins win, 2-1.

What will be the lineup today?

Karson Kuhlman is back. Danton Heinen is back. Nordstrom is back. Brandon Carlo is back, Jeremy Lauzon is back and has been extended 2 years. Blidh is still with the team.
Brett Ritchie is still in Providence.

David Backes is out of trade limbo and into Anaheim – he’s been traded to the Ducks along with Axel Andersson and the 2020 first-round pick. In return, they get Ondrej Kase who has a year left on his contract, and has been scoring at a rate higher than Danton Heinen. Kase has had some injury issues and is currently battling a flu. He is not expected to join the team until Monday, when they return to Boston. No doubt many B’s fans are looking for more from the trade deadline.

Injured defensemen Kevan Miller (fractured kneecap) “has no timeline” for his season debut, but has been skating on his own. Connor Clifton has been skating and has been sent to Providence, surely a sign that he is almost ready to return.

Heinen was practicing with the Krejci line, bumping Kuhlman to the Coyle line. Blidh has alternated with Nordy on the 4th line. I’m hearing that Blidh will skate tonight.

Jaro Halak will be between the pipes today.

Bruins Forward Lines
Brad Marchand	Patrice Bergeron	David Pastrnak
Jake DeBrusk	David Krejci	Danton Heinen
Anders Bjork	Charlie Coyle	Karson Kuhlman
Anton Blidh	Sean Kuraly	Chris Wagner
Bruins Defensive pairs
Zdeno Chara	Charlie McAvoy
Torey Krug	Brandon Carlo
Matt Grzelcyk	Jeremy Lauzon
Bruins Goaltending
#41 Jaroslav Halak	(#40 Tuukka Rask)

The Calgary Flames are the opponents of the evening. They are tied for 4th in NHL Pacific Division with a record of 31-24-6 (68 points). They are 4-2-0 in their last six tilts.
Elias Lindholm and Matthew Tkachuk are the most prolific scorers, with 27 & 20 goals, and Johnny Gaudreau is a playmaking machine. They score a lot and let a lot of goals in their own net.
Mark Giordano (Hamstring) and Travis Hamonic (Illness) are on IR.
Juuso Valimaki has been put on long-term injured reserve with a torn ACL.
Derek Ryan (illness) is a game-time decision.
(h/t Daily Faceoff and Calgary broadcast guy Derek Wills):

Flames Forwards
#13 Johnny Gaudreau — #23 Sean Monahan — #28 Elias Lindholm
#88 Andrew Mangiapane — #11 Mikael Backlund — #19 Matthew Tkachuk
#17 Milan Lucic — #93 Sam Bennett — #29 Dillon Dube
#36 Zac Rinaldo — #77 Mark Jankowski — #16 Tobias Rieder

Flames Defense
#55 Noah Hanifin — #4 Rasmus Andersson
#7 T.J. Brodie — #26 Michael Stone
#58 Oliver Kylington — #6 Brandon Davidson

Flames Goaltending
#39 Cam Talbot
#33 David Rittich