The Calgary Flames are on the road to continue their 2013 preseason tonight when they travel to the Credit Union Centre in Saskatoon to play the Ottawa Senators (7 pm, Sportsnet 960). The Flames won one and lost one in a split squad affair on Saturday night, opening their exhibition schedule against the Oilers. Calgary stormed back to take a 6-5 shootout win in the game played at Rexall Place in Edmonton, but fell 3-2 to the Oilers and the Scotiabank Saddledome.
Tonight, the Flames will ice a pretty decent lineup on the road before heading off to Regina for another split squad affair, this time with the New York Islanders, on Tuesday night. The evaluation process is well underway for Calgary, and we’re expecting some cuts following these next two nights.
Calgary Flames 1-0-1 (preseason record)
- 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
The Flames are putting Monahan and Poirier together once again, as the two 2013 first round picks continue to make their case for a nine game regular season audition. We’ve been talking about this topic in relation to Monahan for quite some time, but the talk seems to have gotten a little louder in Poirier’s situation. The 22nd overall pick scored and stood out in a good way against the Oilers on Saturday night. He used his speed to create opportunities, and even against seasoned NHLers, showed no hesitation in driving the puck to the net. I’m not saying it’s going to happen, but I know my Twitter feed was much more active with “you think Poirier will stay” questions following Saturday’s action.
A pair of Flames defencemen will make their preseason debuts, starting with Wotherspoon. The second round pick from 2011 will start the process of determining where he’ll end up this season, knowing he’s almost certainly going to turn pro. While Abbotsford is his most likely destination, Wotherspoon would love to make a case for himself to stay in the NHL, or at least stick around in camp a little longer than most.
Cundari will also debut tonight after seeing his first NHL action down the stretch last season. Cundari was acquired from the Blues as part of the Jay Bouwmeester deal, and played four games with the Flames in April. He certainly impressed in that short time, scoring his first NHL goal and finishing with three points. There’s a lot of bodies vying for seven, maybe eight, spots on the blueline so a good preseason for Cundari is crucial.
Reinhart is also playing his first game of the preseason after missing some on-ice sessions and Saturday’s action with a minor lower body injury.
An interesting piece of trivia has all three members of the Bouwmeester trade on the ice tonight at the same time. Not only will we see Cundari for the first time, but we’ll also see the first round pick acquired in that deal, who just happens to be the aforementioned Poirier. The final piece of that deal is goaltender Reto Berra who will get the start tonight. His first action came Saturday in the second half of the game. Berra allowed one goal on 14 shots and was perfect on the only two shots he faced in the shootout. Karri Ramo will be the other goalie dressed tonight.
Ottawa Senators 1-0-0 (preseason record)
- Mike Hoffman-Kyle Turris-Clarke MacArthur
- Matt Kassian-Zack Smith-Erik Condra
- Cory Conacher-Stephane Da Costa-Mark Stone
- Darren Kramer-Wacey Hamilton-Buddy Robinson
- Chris Phillips-Cody Ceci
- Michael Sdao-Joe Corvo
- Mark Borowiecki-Troy Rutkowski
It’s a rather underwhelming Sens team taking on the Flames in Saskatoon, but that’s to be expected seeing as how they opened the preseason last night in Winnipeg. The lineup against the Jets boasted names like Jason Spezza, Bobby Ryan, and Erik Karlsson, but one night later we won’t see them in action. Only a few players will play tonight after seeing action against the Jets.
I’m curious to watch a few players tonight, starting with Ceci on the blueline. The 2012 first round pick had 64 points split between the OHL’s Ottawa 67’s and Owen Sound Attack last season. He also got into a few AHL games with the Binghampton Senators down the stretch, posting two points in three regular season games.
Mark Stone was the talk of Alberta in early 2012 when he lit things up with Team Canada at the World Junior Hockey Championship held in Calgary and Edmonton. He finished with ten points at the tournament and is coming off a pretty solid first year of pro hockey. Stone played his first four NHL games with the Senators last year and even saw one game in the playoffs. In the American League, he had 38 points in 54 games.
Calgarian Nathan Lawson starts in net for Ottawa and is set to play the first two periods. Andrew Hammond will play the final 20 minutes.