Pre-Season Preview: Calgary Flames vs Boston Bruins 9/15/18 (1/10)

The Calgary Flames and Boston Bruins will kick off the NHL’s pre-season schedule with a date in Shenzhen, China. It will be the first game for both of these teams in 2018-19, and will be the second time the NHL has ventured into China, after the LA Kings and Vancouver Canucks played two pre-season games there last year as well.

I’m going to keep this preview short as it’s the pre-season, and both teams have really only had a few practices now.

Tonight will be the first chance for Flames fans to see Noah Hanifin, Elias Lindholm, James Neal, Austin Czarnik, Derek Ryan, and new head coach Bill Peters. So yeah, if you’ve been in a coma the last 4-5 months, there’s been a lot of change.

The Bruins swept last year’s season series with the Flames, wining 5-2 at TD Garden, and 2-1 in overtime at the Saddledome. The Flames will be icing a lineup that will look very similar to the one that they will ice in the regular season. The Bruins are adding a bit more youth to their lineup, and will be missing a few mainstays in Patrice Bergeron, Zdeno Chara, Torey Krug, and David Krejci.

Here are the projected lineups based on Friday’s practices for both teams:

Calgary

Forwards

Johnny Gaudreau - Sean Monahan - Elias Lindholm

Matthew Tkachuk - Mikael Backlund - James Neal

Michael Frolik - Derek Ryan - Austin Czarnik

Sam Bennett - Mark Jankowski - Garnet Hathaway

Defence

Mark Giordano - T.J. Brodie

Noah Hanifin - Travis Hamonic

Brett Kulak - Mike Stone

Goalie

Mike Smith

Boston

Forwards

Brad Marchand - Jack Studnicka - David Pastrnak

Jake DeBrusk - Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson - Ryan Donato

Peter Cehlarik - Trent Frederic - David Backes

Joakim Nordstrom - Chris Wagner - Martin Bakos

Defence

John Moore - Charlie McAvoy

Matt Grzlecyk - Kevan Miller

Jakub Zboril - Brandon Carlo

Goalie

Tuukka Rask

These lineups are obviously likely to change before puck drop but this is the general idea of the rosters that both teams will be icing.

Puck drop tonight is at 12:30 AM MT and the game will be broadcast on Sportsnet. Who else isn’t gonna sleep???