Change was in the air on the third day of on-ice action in Calgary Flames training camp. The three fairly equally-balanced groups were torn asunder, with two groups assembled that looked somewhat like big league rosters.. and a group of remnants who skated in the afternoon.

The preparation continued for the first pair of preseason games against Edmonton on Monday night.

New groups, old lines

The two “main” groups seem like prime candidates for the preseason opener(s) against Edmonton. Don’t expect these groups to be sent wholesale to one of the two games, but expect management to cherry-pick particular lines for particular places – Calgary will probably see people like Johnny Gaudreau, Sean Monahan and Mike Smith, for instance.

Most of the lines in the new groups are consistent with what Glen Gulutzan has run in the first two days of practice.

First group:

Gaudreau – Monahan – Ferland
Mangiapane – Jankowski – Brouwer
Shinkaruk – Stajan – Lazar
Cramarossa – F.Hamilton – Glass
(Lomberg)

Brodie – Hamonic
Kulak – Stone
Wotherspoon – Kylington
(Robak)

Lack
Gillies

Second group:

Tkachuk – Backlund – Poirier
Versteeg – Bennett – Foo
Klimchuk – Hrivik – Frolik
Gazdic – Dube – Hathaway
(Pelley)

Giordano – D.Hamilton
Bartkowski – Andersson
Valimaki – Ollas-Mattsson
(Healey)

Smith
Parsons/Rittich

The third group featured a mixture of some of the team’s AHL guys and secondary prospects.

Goaltenders Nick Schneider and Mason McDonald
Defensemen Kayle Doetzel, Oleg Yevenko, Dylan Olsen, Cliff Watson, Tyson Helgesen, Daniel Maggio and Sam Ruopp
Forwards Matthew Phillips, Mark Rassell, Brett Pollock, Austin Carroll, Adam Ruzicka, Hunter Smith, Brett Findlay, Glenn Gawdin, Brad Morrison, Sam Dove-McFalls and Ben Hawerchuk

Aside from maybe Ruzicka and Phillips, none of these guys seem like prime candidates for preseason outings – especially with actual NHL roster spots to be decided. A lot of them will be lucky to still be around by midweek.

Cuts are likely looming

If the past is a good indicator, expect the roster to get cut down from its current size of 68 players either before or immediately after the Monday games – probably a light cull of five to seven players. A larger cull is likely for after the Vancouver game, at which point they’ll probably get down to two practice groups and get down to business.

The Hitmen begin their season on Saturday (*cough* Nick Schneider) and Stockton begins their camp next Monday (the 25th), so keep those dates in mind when thinking about when the cut-down will really get going.