Tonight the Calgary Flames play host to the Winnipeg Jets in the latter half of a home-and-home. Puck drop is just after 9 Eastern and the game can be seen on TSN3 or the team website.
Here are five things to watch:
1. MILAN LUCIC ON POWER PLAY 1 I used all caps on that sub-head because it felt very necessary. Lucic is one of the most inefficient offensive players in the league – he has been for a couple of years now – and his hands appear to have disappeared. I don’t think he belongs anywhere near a power play, let alone a top unit with this kind of talent. That said, preseason is preseason. Tonight’s game is meaningless. I know it’s scary to know members of the coaching staff came up with the idea of putting Lucic on PP1, and are going through with it, but if he looks out of place, the Flames will have incentive to cut the cord because the games start to matter. The one concern is tonight's competition isn't exactly fierce. If he makes a couple plays, which is possible, the Flames might be tricked into thinking this will work long-term and giving him steady PP reps (though on PP2 when No. 19 returns).
2. Sam Bennett on L2 The plan is for Bennett to be a top-6 rover and fill in when needed. Regular season action is just over a week away and Matthew Tkachuk remains unsigned so it’s becoming increasingly likely he’ll be needed from Day 1. We know Bennett can skate and provide energy. The question is if he can produce enough offense. Through two games he has shown some signs he can – he has two points and nobody’s recorded more chances – so it’d be nice to see that trend continue tonight.
3. Oliver Kylington Calgary’s 3rd pairing should get more minutes than the average team dishes out. That’s just reality when you have Rasmus Andersson or T.J. Brodie skating on it any given night. More minutes = more responsibility, which means Bill Peters is going to want somebody he can trust playing with either of those guys. Kylington has the skill, no doubt, but he makes the occasional head-scratching mistake. That has led to the coaching staff being very cautious with him and keeping a tight leash. If he can cut down on those, he should be a regular on what could be the best 3rd pairing in the league. If he can’t, we could be seeing a fair bit of Michael Stone and/or Andrew MacDonald. We don’t want that!
4. Following up David Rittich will start tonight and is expected to play 30 minutes, with potential for more (two periods?). The expectation, as of now, is that Cam Talbot will get some action as well. Though his numbers weren’t great, he looked a lot better in his second appearance with the Flames than in his disastrous debut. It’d be nice to see him build on that and get into a nice grove heading into the regular season.
5. Winger battles Andrew Mangiapane, Dillon Dube, Austin Czarnik, and Tobias Rieder are fighting over three regular spots (two once Tkachuk is back), and maybe one top-9 slot. They’ve all made strong cases to play every night so it’s imperative they continue to impress each time out. With so much competition, one or two off nights could cost a spot in the lineup and, perhaps, the roster as a whole.
Here are the projected lineups:
Calgary Johnny Gaudreau - Sean Monahan - Elias Lindholm Sam Bennett - Mikael Backlund - Michael Frolik Milan Lucic - Derek Ryan - Andrew Mangiapane Dillon Dube - Mark Jankowski - Austin Czarnik
Mark Giordano - T.J. Brodie Noah Hanifin - Travis Hamonic Oliver Kylington - Rasmus Andersson
David Rittich Cam Talbot
Winnipeg Forwards: Andrew Copp, Seth Griffith, Mark Letestu, J.C. Lipon, David Gustafsson, Andrei Chibisov, Gabriel Bourque, Jansen Harkins, Michael Spacek, Mason Appleton, Kristian Reichel, Kristian Vesalainen.
Defenders: Josh Morrissey, Dmitry Kulikov, Nathan Beaulieru, Nelson Nogier, Anthony Bitetto, Tucker Poolman
Eric Comrie Mikhail Berdin
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