Bruins vs. Flames 2/19/18 PREVIEW: Get fired up

Just The Facts:

The Time: 4pm EST

The Place: Saddledome, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

The Place to watch: NESN, NHL Network (USA only), Sportsnet-West

The Place to listen: 98.5 The Sports Hub, Sportsnet FAN 960

Opposing SBNation Blog: Matchsticks and Gasoline

Players to Watch:

• Mike Smith is harm’d for the time being, so John Gillies and Boston fan favorite David Rittich will be the tandem for Calgary. They haven’t been great.
• Johnny Gaudreau, a minor whose parents seem to be eternally absent, is still the go to man for the Flames for play-driving. He currently is responsible for 19 goals and 49 assists.
• “Mister Excitement” Sean Monahan currently leads the Flames with 27 goals.
• Matthew Tkachuk is probably gonna run away with “most obnoxious forward ever” award sometime in the near future. He’s a little pain in the ass.
• Dougie Hamilton got himself a hat trick on Saturday evening. Sounds like their power play benefits when he’s on the ice. Should make a note of stopping that.
• Kevan Miller’s timetable for return from injury says he should be eligible for play tonight? Bruce certainly wants him somewhere in the lineup, but we’ll keep you posted if that isn’t a reality.

Preview:

Boston got their head smashed in on Saturday. Nobody looked great, few players could conceivably be said to look good, Rask was mercy-pulled, and the entire defense collapsed in on itself, with special demerit going to the 2nd pairing.

Thankfully, Calgary had a similarly embarrassing weekend, as they just got handed a fat, stinking 6-3 L by Florida on the heels of Roberto Luongo returning in which the only goalscorer they could conceivably count on was a defenseman. They too, had to pull their goalie and toss in another.

The B’s have a simple game plan to improve on their chances from last game because quite frankly it was a master class in what not to do: tighten up defensively in front of the goaltender, don’t give up too many chances in super high-danger areas of the ice, and take advantage of a much more defensively-passive team in the Flames who lost their starting goalie. If they can do that, they can walk into their game against Edmonton firing on all cylinders.

Should be a fun matchup, tune in and go B’s!

NEVER 4GET:

Paul Postma is still a roster member.

He also has a cute dog! Here’s him and his cute dog from practice yesterday.