Y'all ready for this? First BoA of 08/09

Yeah, yeah it's the preseason and meaningless and everything. Still...Battle! Game on! Etc!

Not only is the game being televised by Sportsnet, but both clubs are apparently dressing half-way decent rosters. Flames:

Bertuzzi Langkow Iginla
Glencross Boyd Moss
Roy Primeau Nystrom
Cammalleri Backlund Lundmark

Phaneuf Giordano
Pardy Aucoin
Sarich Vandermeer

Scumbags:

Cole Horcoff Hemsky
Nilsson Cogliano Gagner
Moreau Spurgeon Lefebvre
Schremp Cornet Corazzini

Souray Visnovsky
Grebeshkov Gilbert
Peckham Roy

via Rob Kerr.

As you can see, both clubs have their "#1 lines" in the queue as well as a handful of veteran defenders and such. Oilers fans can crack another Pilsner and kiss their sisters in celebration of the fact that the ol' big meany Robyn Regehr won't be around to rough-up poor, delicate Ales Hemsky tonight.

On the Flames front, I'll be watching how Backlund does between Cammalleri and Lundmark (?) as well as my not-so-secret fantasy pairing of Giordano and Phaneuf (although Dion has been Mr.Chaos so far this pre-season). Also, I hope Dustin Boyd can build on his strong effort so far and can further ingratiate himself with the coaching staff. Partially because I'm rooting for the guy crack the top 6 for his own sake and partially because I have him as a dark horse in the blogger pool.

Prediction - Flames win, Roloson's mask comes off somehow.

Go Flames!