Pre-Season Game Thread #3: Flames vs. Senators

An even younger Flames squad will be taking on the Ottawa Senators tonight on neutral turf in Saskatoon. Veterans Lee Stempniak, Curtis Glencross, Jiri Hudler, Mike Cammalleri, Mark Giordano and Dennis Wideman, amongst others, will sit this one out to give the likes of Max Reinhart, Tyler Wotherspoon and Mark Cundari a shot.

Here are your officially unofficial lines for tonight (via flames.nhl.com):

Sven Baertschi – Matt Stajan – David Jones

Max Reinhart – Sean Monahan – Emile Poirier

Ben Hanowski – Josh Jooris – Blair Jones

Corban Knight – Mikael Backlund – Brian McGrattan

Tyler Wotherspoon – TJ Brodie

Mark Cundari – Shane O'Brien

Chris Butler – Patrick Sieloff

Reto Berra

Karri Ramo

Baertschi gets promoted to the top line with the big boys after undressing Denis Grebeshkov on the game-tying goal in the dying minutes of Saturday’s 6-5 win in Edmonton, while Reto Berra gets the start, after holding down the fort for the rest of the game when he took over control of the crease from Ramo. On defence, the Wotherspoon-Brodie pairing will be interesting to watch, should it last.

Senators (via Silver Seven):

MacArthur – Turris – Hoffman

Grant – Smith – Condra

Conacher – Da Costa – Robinson

Kramer – Hamilton – O'Brien

Phillips – Ceci

Boro – Rutkowski

Sdao – Corvo

Goalie TBA

The Sens lineup is also laden with younguns and maybe not-so NHL-ready talents, lacking the likes of newly minted captain Jason Spezza and Daniel Alfredsson Erik Karlsson, so if the good folks of Saskatoon are hoping to see some good hockey tonight, well, my apologies in advance.

Go Flames!

by Hayley Mutch