Prepare for a treat tonight as both the Flames and Oilers will be rolling out lineups that will be very close to how they will look to begin the season. You know Sutter will be expecting the team to set a physical tone. Let’s take a look at the lineup.
Gaudreau-Lindholm-Tkachuk Mangiapane-Monahan-Lewis Dube-Backlund-Ritchie Lucic-Richardson-Duehr
Hanifin-Andersson Zadorov-Tanev Kylington-Gudbranson Valimaki-Stone
Markstrom Vladar
A first look at Monahan Monahan, who usually has Gaudreau riding shotgun, will play with Mangiapane and Trevor Lewis. While this looks like an underwhelming line at face value, it seems like your classic Phil Esposito set up. Two guys that can win a puck out of the corner and one guy who can capitalize in the slot. While Lewis will be interesting to watch on this line, you have to wonder what the physical speedster Walker Duehr could do on the right wing of this line.
Hanifin is in Much like Sean Monahan, Noah Hanifin won’t be starting tonight with his regular linemate. Darryl will be continuing to experiment with Nikita Zadorov and how to properly shelter the weaker ends of his defensive game so the Flames can still get his big hits impacting games. That means Zadorov will play with defensive stalwart Chris Tanev while Hanifin pairs up with minute munching Rasmus Andersson. Andersson and Hanifin have put together decent results in the past, but usually eventually revert back to their classic pairings in Giordano-Andersson and Hanifin-Tanev.
The first line gets another run Tkachuk-Lindholm-Gaudreau looked electric last Friday. They collectively earned five points against Vancouver and Johnny finished the night with seven shots. Gaudreau looks completely night-and-day on this line compared to the old Gaudreau-Monahan format. Instead of creating space for himself with his speed; he is supporting the play, looking for open ice, and waiting for one-timers. Tkachuk and Lindholm do such a good job creating havoc that Johnny can fly under the radar as long as the other two are dangerous on their own.
Zadorov and Gudbranson in the same lineup Most followers of hockey would say this will lead to disaster. That’s two defensive liabilities rolling between three pairings. Sutter managed to deploy these two responsibly on Friday, but having them in the lineup against two of the best players in the world will spell trouble. Gudbranson in particular got eaten alive by McDavid last season — and the Oilers have last change tonight. Expect Tippett to be tapping McDavid’s shoulder whenever Gudbranson heads on the ice.
Duehr is still here Duehr has all but officially earned a spot out of camp. Tonight he gets a look with NHL players in Lucic and Richardson. I would not want to be an Edmonton Oiler defenseman when the puck gets dumped in against this line.
Dube-Backlund-Ritchie emerges as line three Ritchie has really gotten his defensive game in order over the last few weeks. Backlund is on a hot streak nearing the end of this preseason and Dube has the skating to make this a line that transitions through the neutral zone quickly.
Valimaki in the outside looking in Valimaki has been doing the right things the last few games. That said, the Flames blue line has a requirement of physicality and a pairing of Kylington-Valimaki didn’t show well last season. As it stands it appears Jusso will step in if one of the Flames’ offensive defensemen needs a night off and Stone will step in if one of Zadorov, Gudbranson, Tanev draws out.
For reference, here is the Oilers lineup tonight:
Hyman - McDavid - Puljujarvi RNH - Draisaitl - Yamamoto Foegele - Ryan - Kassian Perlini - Shore - Turris
Nurse - Barrie Keith - Ceci Koekkoek -Bouchard
Koskinen Skinner
It will be interesting to see if that Oilers defence is any good in their own end. Enjoy the game!
Trevor Neufeld