Day 3 Scrimmage and Camp Open Thread

It’s the final day of full-scale practicing and scrimmaging at Winsport before the Calgary Flames begin the 2015-16 pre-season schedule on Monday night.

So prepare for the final preparations and the final line-up tinkerings as we prepare for tomorrow night.

Group C (McCrimmon) scrimmages with Group A (McDonald) today at 10am! Group C also practices at 9am, Group A practices at 11am, and Group B practices at noon and will get their turn at the longer (about 90 minute) off-day practice.

Here’s who’s scrimmaging today!

Lines from yesterday’s practice:

Gaudreau – Monahan – Ferland
Agostino – Granlund – Jooris
Marchment – Karnaukhov – Smith
Lomberg – Baillie – Burke

Brodie – Engelland
Stevenson – Wotherspoon
Johnson – Kanzig

Hiller/Simpson

Group A beat Group B 2-0 on Friday. Brodie and Agostino scored in that one.

Lines from yesterday, presuming Mason Raymond (flu) is back today as expected:

Raymond – Bennett – Hudler
Klimchuk – Stajan – Jones
Riley – Arnold – Carroll
Van Brabant – Grant – Bruce

Giordano – Hamilton
Kulak – Nakladal
Andersson – Wilson

Ortio/Schneider

Group C skated to a 1-1 tie with Group B yesterday. Andersson scored. With Jon Gillies still on concussion protocol, presumably Schneider rotates groups again and backs up Ortio.

I’m kinda excited for this scrimmage. It’s Brodie versus Giordano! It’s Hudler and Bennett against Monahan and Gaudreau! Nakladal versus Wotherspoon! Arnold versus Granlund! And with arguably the two most-stacked camp groups facing off, it’s a chance to see who stands out before we hit the live-fire exercises that are exhibition games against real opposition.

For the curious, Group B will be the long practice group at noon. That group includes such luminaries as Kris Russell, Dennis Wideman, Oliver Kylington, Kenney Morrison, Mikael Backlund, Lance Bouma, Andrew Mangiapane and Emile Poirier.

As we did yesterday, we’ll provide some updates here throughout the day.

The scrimmage is over and was won 3-2 by Team McDonald. It helped that they had Gaudreau and Monahan, as that duo combined for a pair of goals, and Kenny Agostino added the other one off a really nice feed from Josh Jooris. The top three lines for McDonald really worked well, even the Karnaukhov line, which drove pucks deep (even on Giordano and Hamilton), and that really told the tale of the “game.” Morgan Klimchuk and Sam Bennett scored for Team McCrimmon. Mason Raymond seemed to be fighting the puck – and also took a few passes in his skates – so the majority of the offensive push for his side was from the Klimchuk-Stajan-Jones line.

It’s early, but Klimchuk doesn’t look out of place.