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Five things to watch in the Flames' preseason opener(s) vs the Oilers |
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The Calgary Flames open up their seven-game preseason schedule tonight with a pair of split-squad games against the Edmonton Oilers.
Both games begin at 7 p.m. Mountain Time and can be streamed locally on the official team website.
Here are the lineups the Flames will be going with this evening:
Five things to watch:
1) The Flames have a hole on the right side of the 3rd line and Spencer Foo is being given the first opportunity to fill it (he's playing alongside Sam Bennett tonight). He really impressed during the Young Stars Classic and will be looking to do the same in the preseason. If he does, he could find himself inside the top-9 on opening night.
2) Matt Bartkowski and Rasmus Andersson are defense partners on what appears to be the team's 4th pairing. Based on what the Flames have on their roster Andersson seems like a longshot to make the team but he could make things interesting with a few strong showings. Tonight will be a good test for him as he'll play big minutes in Edmonton against a lot of their regular players.
3) Preseason success doesn't guarantee regular season success but it'd be nice to see a good performance from Eddie Lack in his first competitive game as a Flame. They need him to be a lot better than he was in Carolina the last couple years.
4) As expected, Travis Hamonic will be lining up opposite side T.J. Brodie on the second pairing. The Flames are facing a watered down Oilers team -- their better lineup will be playing at home -- but it'll still be fun to watch that pairing in a competitive environment.
5) It'll be interesting to see if the Johnny Gaudreau - Sean Monahan - Micheal Ferland line can pick up where it left off last season. They were excellent down the stretch and the plan is to keep them together moving forward.
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