FGD: Pre Battle
Pat Steinberg
September 24 2011 01:09PM
The Calgary Flames continue their preseason tonight as they open up a home and home set with the Edmonton Oilers at Rexall Place (6 pm, Sportsnet Radio FAN 960 and www.calgaryflames.com). Calgary opened their preseason with a win and a loss on Tuesday, taking a 5-1 split squad win at home over Vancouver before falling to the Canucks 4-3 at Rogers Arena. Tonight opens up a stretch of four games in six nights for Calgary.
The Lineup
Calgary brings a mixed lineup, with plenty of bubble players to watch and evaluate to go along with veteran players to help drive the bus. It'll be the second preseason game for Sven Baertschi, as the Flames 2011 first round pick continues to impress in many circles. It'll be interesting to see if Calgary gives him some regular season games to try and impress, or if they return him to Portland of the WHL so he can get close to a full season in in junior.
Personally, I don't think Baertschi is ready to play the type of role he'd need to play on a consistent basis, so junior is the place to go. As such, I'd rather see them go the junior route sooner rather than later. I say that for two reasons:
First, it'll allow Sven to get almost a full season in with the Winterhawks, making it most condusive to him dominating the league. Second, I've heard a few stories of how getting players into regular season games and then re-assigning them can do a number on their confidence. Why risk that for a guy who isn't ready for the NHL?
Paul Byron is a different story, as he's older, has two years of pro under his belt, and might really be ready to play in the NHL. The problem is, there are so many forward bodies on one-way contracts that many don't see a logical fit for the small forward on this team right now. If Byron continues to impress (and let's not forget, his first game was against a glorified Allan Cup team) then it'll be interesting to see if Jay Feaster sticks someone else in the press box. Here are lines and pairings.
Lee Stempniak-Paul Byron-Rene Bourque
Niklas Hagman-Max Reinhart-Sven Baertschi
Lance Bouma-Matt Stajan-Greg Nemisz
Stefan Meyer-Ben Walter-Guillaume Desbiens
Mark Giordano-Scott Hannan
Derek Smith-Anton Babchuk
Brendan Mikkelson-Jordan Henry
Henry is another player to watch, after a strong, poised outing at home on Tuesday night. With Cory Sarich and Brett Carson unlikely to be ready for the start of the season, Henry is among the group of players fighting for potential open spots in the six and seven hole. Mikkelson had a shaky game on Tuesday, but might have an inside track just because of his familiarity with the team. If that's true, Henry probably has the edge currently on names like T.J. Brodie, Clay Wilson and Smith.
It was thought at first Henrik Karlsson would join Leland Irving for the game in Edmonton, but the Flames website has Irving going with Joni Ortio. Again, Irving needs the game action as Abbotsford has next to no preseason, and after a shaky outing in Vancouver, he likely needs a better effort on top of it all.
The Opponent
It'll be a fairly star studded lineup for the Oilers. They'll go with a number of their marquee names at home, as most teams typically do. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins will play for the first time against the Flames, as he was sat out for the game at the Young Stars Tournament in Penticton. The 2011 first overall pick will play on the same line as 2010 first overall pick Taylor Hall, who has drawn rave reviews so far in camp.
Taylor Hall-Ryan Nugent-Hopkins-Teemu Hartikainen
Ryan Jones-Sam Gagner-Ryan Keller
Josh Green-Eric Belanger-Tyler Pitlick
Antti Tyrvainen-Anton Lander-Ryan Martindale
Andy Sutton-Tom Gilbert
Cam Barker-Kirill Tulupov
Theo Peckham-Jeff Petry
Lander centeres the fourth line, yet I wonder if there's more of a chance for him to make the Oilers out of camp than for Nugent-Hopkins. It's almost a guarantee Nugent-Hopkins will get the nine regular season games before Edmonton makes their decision, but Lander is older and more experienced and already has extremely keen defensive awareness. In Penticton, I was very impressed with Lander's finishing ability, however. If he's not on the team to start, I think he'll play in the AHL and be on the Oilers by the end of the year full time.
Nikolai Khabibulin gets the start in net and he's yet to really impress in the preseason. He'll be under extreme scrutiny this year in Edmonton, as Oilers fans will look at his contract and expect a large deal more than they've gotten from him so far. Olivier Roy serves as the backup tonight.
The Story
It's the preseason, so, yeah don't put too much stock into this thing. What's good is the Oilers are bringing some real players in this game, so it'll be a fair evaluation of guys like Byron and Henry. The two teams hook up again Sunday back at the 'Dome, a 6 pm start as well.
FIST for the oilers tonight!!!
As for Lander, hes OKC bound methinks and will be the first call up, Hopkins should stick all year.
@Wanyes bastard child
You think RNH is NHL ready? He might be, but why start the clock on his entry level deal when having him in the lineup likely won't impact the season for Edmonton.
@Pat Steinberg
Actually I don't know if hes ready for a full 82 games or not, thats the beauty part of it in that we finally have options and with players like Lander, Brule (back and healthy) as well as other young talent. Some healthy competition fighting for spots is a good thing in my view.
As for his ELC i've never been a proponent of holding someone back for that reason. If he shows in his 9 games that he can compete and not be a liability than for sure, keep him. Lets worry about paying them 2-3 years down the line.
RNH is definitely not ready. He was getting dominated down low physically by the mediocre Canucks players, he isnt gonna be able to handle a real teams forwards.
Honestly, I'm not sure RNH is ready for the NHL yet. He'll get 9 regular season games to show what he's got. He's definitely talented enough, but looked a tad nervous in his last game. Truth be told RNH is very sneaky, the opposition really doesn't what he'll do until it actually happens; very deceptive player.
When did they let Re-Khabibulin out of tent city?
Also, what's the word on Iginla? Is he still sitting out so as to not strain his back?
Also, looks like our good friend Kotalik is bound for the Sabres' minor league team...
I'll be interested to see Reinhart in against semi-real competition tonight.
Apparently at the season ticket holders lunch on Thursday Feaster said that there are three rookies with a good chance of making the line-up. Who do you think they are? I would think that they are playing tonight.
Byron and Henry are clearly on the list. Who is the third? Baertschi? Bouma? Nemisz? Has to be one of them I would think.
And who loses their spot? Hagman? Moss? TK? Jackman? Or is it someone with a longer contract like Bourque or Stajan?
I will be watching the listed rookies plus Hagman and Stajan pretty closely over the weekend. I think we will have a pretty clear picture before Tuesday's game.
I love this time of year.
@Sincity1976
Moss, Bourque and Jackman won't be losing their spots. The closest to the fringe would probably be Tom Kostopolous, Hagman and Stajan up front. Kosto because he's just above replacement level and the other two because Sutter showed he didn't have much use for either of them last year.
I consider this all rather theoretical anyways. If I was going to bet some dollars, I'd put them on a line-up of veterans (and Backlund). I find GM' say stuff like that all the time only to see the status quo re-emerge two weeks in the regular season.
The Giordano/Hannon pairing will be interesting. Let's see how well they play together against a fairly fast set of opposing forwards. It's also interesting that Mikkelson and Henry are paired together, since they are probably competing for the same job.
@Kent Wilson
Thanks for the link to for Derek Zona's (Copper and Blue) post the other day. Good read.
@Kent Wilson
I think Byron is on the roster come the regular season. I also think Henry is there, but that is assuming Sarich and Carson are both on the IR.
I think Baertschi finds himself in junior and players like Nemisz and Bouma will get called up due to injury.
If Baertschi and Byron do make the team then we are at 17-forwards and something clearly has to give.
@Sincity1976
Certainly. Even if Ivanans and/or P3L don't make the team (something I'm starting to feat is inevitable) there's still too many guys here.
The goons have to be out of the picture and at least one other forward has to go away for Byron to make the team.
@ChinookArch
Speaking of which, here is the pre-game from Oilers Nation - http://oilersnation.com/2011/9/24/the-shape-of-things-to-come
And also from C&B - http://www.coppernblue.com/2011/9/24/2446571/oilers-vs-flames-hopefully-with-much-less-punching
Oh Hai, this is how much Calgary sucks... even outerspace is throwing stuff at it :P
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/0924/NASA-satellite-falls-on-Canada-as-space-junk.-No-one-hurt
Quiet GDT. Dull first period. I like Baertschi, Reinhart, and Hagman. Meyer showed some hustle. Gio and Hannan look good together. Smith has caught my eye as well.
Not much else to see.
How's Leland looked so far? No goals against, but does he look good, shaky?
Not too many quality chances against, but he's looked a lot more confident from what I can tell. He's not fighting the puck nearly as much as he did against Vancouver.
Erroneous report and Okotoks is a whole different place than Calgary. Way to represent Bastard.
Umm, so there really isn't much interweb interest on the internet for this one is there? I am stuck on just my BB - can some one post an update?
Also - I am in Okotoks, do I need to fear the satellite?
Boring game. Watching live:
Peckham is brutal. Baertschi is awesome. Ryan Jones has sick flow.
@Reidja
Oh give it up, im not a troll, it was meant for a cheap laugh.
Just tuned into the live feed... Irving has looked pretty comfortable in the net. Has he looked this way the whole game?
baertschi had a datsyuk like steal from lander earlier that led to a great scoring chance
Gio and Hannan kind of blew that play.
I walked away for the last minute or two of the game and the Oilers score?
Didn't think Irving looked all that good. Defense botched the play on the SHG by Jones, but Irving opened his five hole up way too much and let the goal in there. Slid too far, legs too wide open, totally mis-read the shot from what I could tell.
Honestly, I don't ever see him being anything more than a backup at the NHL level. At least, he hasn't shown anything to the contrary.
Baertschi looked great. Every time I saw Hagman he was losing the puck or falling over or getting plastered into the boards.
We did have a couple good plays in.. the first I believe, where we totally worked their D. Bourque goal was kinda BS - it was from far out, and just went in between Re-Khab's leg and the goal post.
Didn't watch the game (family engagement), but the boxscore seems to indicate the Oilers were the better team. Not sure how accurately that reflects the action though.
@Kent Wilson
It's doesn't. At all.
@Wanyes bastard child
Ditto and never!
@Kent Wilson
The Oilers were the better team in the 3rd but overall was a pretty even game.
Hall looked great last night. Really stood out. Baertschi was incredibly poised and physical last night. Another standout night.
Another big standout was Henry, the guy was great. Babchuk, ugh, can anyone say Ian White? The guy has been terrible. And last night watching it live at Rexall he really stood out in a bad way.