Training camp is officially underway at the Saddledome with on ice sessions starting Saturday morning. Group A skated in the early session and consisted of mostly veterans with a few prospects mixed in. The second group was the opposite with most prospects and a few vets sprinkled in.
Niklas Hagman was battling a flu bug, so he was the only one to sit out the early session. Jon Rheault, Brett Sutter, TJ Brodie, Mikael Backlund and Cam Cunning were the five prospect players skating with the rest of the established guys. Some may not even put Backlund and Sutter in that group of five, seeing as how they spent a chunk of last season with the Flames.
Line combinations and D pairings looked like this:
Tanguay-Jokinen-Iginla
Bourque-Stajan-Rheault
Glencross-Moss-Kotalik
Cunning-Conroy-Sutter
Ivanans-Backlund-Jackman
Bouwmeester-Staios
Giordano-Sarich
White-Regehr
Brodie-Pardy
Safe to assume the plan is to have Hagman take Rheault’s spot on that line with Bourque and Stajan, at least to start training camp. Rheault is officially on the Group B roster, but skated in the early session with Hagman’s abscence. Backlund left the ice after taking a high stick on a competition drill, however Head Coach Brent Sutter said it didn’t seem serious.
The trio everyone was talking about was indeed Jokinen, Iginla and Tanguay. All seemed excited to be playing with eachother when talking in the locker room following practice. During the offensive drills, that line seemed to be the crispest in terms of passing and executing, but remember, it is just day one of camp.
Surprise surprise, Backlund is skating on the goon line. Going to be a great fourth line…
Moss centering a line?
Weird.
Apparently Moss was a center for most of his career.
Oh…and Bouwmeester being paired with Staios will become one of those things I rag on endlessly if it continues into the season. It’s flat out stupid.
Bouwmeester and Staios have been separated for the red and white game. No idea if that will continue. Hope so.
According to TSN Backlund was on the inside track to centre the second line before he got hurt. Hope so. I am fine with him in the AHL, but I really hope we don’t see him between Ivanan and Jackman on the fourth line.
I also hate the Staois-Bouwmeester combination. Looks like they are set on keeping a right handed shot on each line. I don’t really like Sarich on that line either and Sarich/Staois-Regher is worse.
Correct if I’m wrong but don’t the Flames still have to get rid of some excess salary cap before the season. Don’t worry since there’s probably no trade in the mix, it looks like Staios will get demoted
It looks like Langkow won’t be ready so theoretically they could go live with the existing roster. I won’t be surprised at all of Staios makes the roster.
staios will start on the jaybouw pairing til we lose a couple (eight ?) games and brent/darryl realize that pardy is probably a better option in every way.
Why is Kronwall being passed over? I’ve watched him in the past – he seems way better than Staios.
Because we got rid of Strålman, too. And look at him now.
Ha. Good point.
Iggy with Joker? C’mon Sutter, didnt you learn anything from the last 2 years?