The Calgary Flames have been practicing for a few days now and head coach Bob Hartley has experimented with several intriguing line combinations in advance of their preseason opener(s) on Monday night.
Some thoughts on what we've seen so far:
- I'm not a huge fan of Micheal Ferland on the top line alongside Johnny Hockey and Sean Monahan but I have no problem with the Flames splitting up the big three. Guardian and Monahan should be able to create offensively regardless of who they're with and by moving Hudler to another line they'd have a much more balanced offensive attack.
- Sam Bennett has been skating on the 2nd 'scoring' line with Jiri Hudler and Mason Raymond. Raymond, like Ferland, is an interchangeable part that could be moved around but I do like Bennett with Hudler. He led the team in scoring last year and Bennett is a rookie so obviously they would be deployed in offensive situations. That should take some of the burden off Bennett and is exactly what GM Brad Treliving was hinting at when he said they're not going to drop Bennett in the deep end of the pool and force him to play in situations he may not succeed in.
- With the way the lines are shaping up - at least for now - we could see a Mikael Backlund - Michael Frolik duo on the '3rd line'. Frolik is accustomed to doing heavy lifting and logging defensive minutes (as is Backlund) so I could see them taking on all the tough assignments while chipping in offensively when they can. Should Hartley elect to use that duo and ask them to do the heavy lifting it will take a big load off the shoulders of the two scoring lines and allow them to play favorable minutes in offensive situations.
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