The Calgary Flames hit the ice for their third day of training camp on Wednesday. There were a few changes to personnel, as well as discussion of the upcoming first scrimmage of camp.

<h2>Slightly different lines!</h2>
On Monday and Tuesday, Flames head coach Geoff Ward trotted out the exact same lines. But we were warned that changes were coming, and Wednesday brought us slightly different lines!
Via everyone’s pal Pat Steinberg, lines from the two practice groups. (Changes from earlier in the week bolded):
Team Iginla
Andrew Mangiapane – Mikael Backlund – Derek Ryan 
Milan Lucic – Sam Bennett – Dillon Dube 
Emilio Petterssen – Glenn Gawdin – Luke Philp 
Justin Kirkland – Adam Ruzicka – Matthew Phillips 
Mark Giordano – Chris Tanev 
Connor Mackey – Michael Stone 
Carl-Johan Lerby – Alex Petrovic
Jacob Markstrom 
Artyom Zagidulin 
Garret Sparks
Derek Ryan and Sam Bennett changed spots, with Ryan now on Backlund&#8217;s right side and Bennett reunited with his playoff linemates. On the defensive end, Michael Stone and Alex Petrovic swapped, with Connor Mackey getting a new partner with more NHL seasoning than he had previously.
Team McDonald
Matthew Tkachuk – Elias Lindholm – Dominik Simon 
Johnny Gaudreau – Sean Monahan – Josh Leivo 
Joakim Nordstrom – Byron Froese – Dmitry Zavgorodniy 
Buddy Robinson – Eetu Tuulola – Zac Rinaldo 
Noah Hanifin – Rasmus Andersson 
Juuso Valimaki – Nikita Nesterov 
Colton Poolman – Alexander Yelesin 
David Rittich 
Louis Domingue
Dominik Simon and Josh Leivo swapped spots. On the bottom end of the lineup, Dmitry Zavgorodniy moved to the right side of Byron Froese&#8217;s line, Eetu Tuulola slid over to play centre, and Buddy Robinson dropped down to Tuulola&#8217;s vacated spot.
<h2>Scrimmage</h2>
The good news is the Flames no longer play a zillion pre-season games. The bad news is they no longer play any pre-season games whatsoever, at least for this season, which puts a lot of importance on a pair of scrimmages the club has scheduled &#8211; they&#8217;ll go today and Monday at 7 p.m. at the &#8216;Dome (both broadcast on Sportsnet 960 The Fan but closed to the public).
Usually the Flames get some time to warm themselves up for actual games, with pre-season games serving as an opportunity to knock the rust off, find their timing and their game-day routines, and eventually get themselves battle-ready for the regular season. Not this year, so the two scrimmages will have to serve that purpose.
Flames forward Derek Ryan doesn&#8217;t think his teammates will have any issue getting ready for the intensity of the regular season via the scrimmages instead of exhibition games.
&#8220;I think guys, maybe even more so now that we&#8217;re playing each other, we can push each other a little more,&#8221; said Ryan. &#8220;Especially the veteran guys, I think that&#8217;s part of our responsibility is to make sure the pace is high and make sure the guys are taking it as seriously as possible. That being said, obviously we don&#8217;t want anyone to get hurt, but we have to take it seriously and play like a real game. So I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s much different from a pre-season game to be honest.
<h2>Incoming new faces</h2>
Right now, the Flames have 41 players in camp &#8211; five goalies and the mandated limit of 36 skaters. But there will likely be some changes to the two groupings after Friday&#8217;s day off.
But Ward mentioned that they haven&#8217;t quite finalized plans for the incoming players from Edmonton&#8217;s World Junior bubble: gold medalist Dustin Wolf and silver medalists Jakob Pelletier and Connor Zary. Well, aside from making sure they&#8217;re healthy and ready to hit the ice.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Flames?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Flames</a> head coach Geoff Ward says he hasn’t decided how to integrate WJC participants Jakob Pelletier, Connor Zary, and Dustin Wolf into camp.
Says they won’t be a part of tomorrow’s intra-squad game, which means they wouldn’t be available until Saturday at the earliest.
&mdash; Pat Steinberg (@Fan960Steinberg) <a href="https://twitter.com/Fan960Steinberg/status/1346922467399385090?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 6, 2021</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
But someone who likely will not see the ice at all during camp is Oliver Kylington, whose arrival into Calgary was delayed by immigration issues and won&#8217;t be available until after the Monday scrimmage.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
Per head coach Geoff Ward, don’t expect to see D Oliver Kylington until after the second intra-squad game on Monday.
Says he still has to clear all protocols before he’s able to join the group. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Flames?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Flames</a>
&mdash; Pat Steinberg (@Fan960Steinberg) <a href="https://twitter.com/Fan960Steinberg/status/1346565913235968000?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 5, 2021</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
For the curious, nothing has been really said officially about rumoured PTO forward Brett Ritchie. Like Kylington, he would also be required to quarantine before hitting the ice and his arrival would mandate someone else&#8217;s departure due to the 36 skater limit during training camps.

The Calgary Flames hit the ice for their third day of training camp on Wednesday. There were a few changes to personnel, as well as discussion of the upcoming first scrimmage of camp.


<h2>Slightly different lines!</h2>
On Monday and Tuesday, Flames head coach Geoff Ward trotted out the exact same lines. But we were warned that changes were coming, and Wednesday brought us slightly different lines!

Via everyone’s pal Pat Steinberg, lines from the two practice groups. (Changes from earlier in the week bolded):

Team Iginla

Andrew Mangiapane – Mikael Backlund – Derek Ryan
Milan Lucic – Sam Bennett – Dillon Dube
Emilio Petterssen – Glenn Gawdin – Luke Philp
Justin Kirkland – Adam Ruzicka – Matthew Phillips 

Mark Giordano – Chris Tanev
Connor Mackey – Michael Stone
Carl-Johan Lerby – Alex Petrovic

Jacob Markstrom
Artyom Zagidulin
Garret Sparks

Derek Ryan and Sam Bennett changed spots, with Ryan now on Backlund's right side and Bennett reunited with his playoff linemates. On the defensive end, Michael Stone and Alex Petrovic swapped, with Connor Mackey getting a new partner with more NHL seasoning than he had previously.

Team McDonald

Matthew Tkachuk – Elias Lindholm – Dominik Simon
Johnny Gaudreau – Sean Monahan – Josh Leivo
Joakim Nordstrom – Byron Froese – Dmitry Zavgorodniy
Buddy Robinson – Eetu Tuulola – Zac Rinaldo 

Noah Hanifin – Rasmus Andersson
Juuso Valimaki – Nikita Nesterov
Colton Poolman – Alexander Yelesin 

David Rittich
Louis Domingue

Dominik Simon and Josh Leivo swapped spots. On the bottom end of the lineup, Dmitry Zavgorodniy moved to the right side of Byron Froese's line, Eetu Tuulola slid over to play centre, and Buddy Robinson dropped down to Tuulola's vacated spot.
<h2>Scrimmage</h2>
The good news is the Flames no longer play a zillion pre-season games. The bad news is they no longer play any pre-season games whatsoever, at least for this season, which puts a lot of importance on a pair of scrimmages the club has scheduled - they'll go today and Monday at 7 p.m. at the 'Dome (both broadcast on Sportsnet 960 The Fan but closed to the public).

Usually the Flames get some time to warm themselves up for actual games, with pre-season games serving as an opportunity to knock the rust off, find their timing and their game-day routines, and eventually get themselves battle-ready for the regular season. Not this year, so the two scrimmages will have to serve that purpose.

Flames forward Derek Ryan doesn't think his teammates will have any issue getting ready for the intensity of the regular season via the scrimmages instead of exhibition games.

"I think guys, maybe even more so now that we're playing each other, we can push each other a little more," said Ryan. "Especially the veteran guys, I think that's part of our responsibility is to make sure the pace is high and make sure the guys are taking it as seriously as possible. That being said, obviously we don't want anyone to get hurt, but we have to take it seriously and play like a real game. So I don't think it's much different from a pre-season game to be honest.
<h2>Incoming new faces</h2>
Right now, the Flames have 41 players in camp - five goalies and the mandated limit of 36 skaters. But there will likely be some changes to the two groupings after Friday's day off.

But Ward mentioned that they haven't quite finalized plans for the incoming players from Edmonton's World Junior bubble: gold medalist Dustin Wolf and silver medalists Jakob Pelletier and Connor Zary. Well, aside from making sure they're healthy and ready to hit the ice.

https://twitter.com/Fan960Steinberg/status/1346922467399385090

But someone who likely will not see the ice at all during camp is Oliver Kylington, whose arrival into Calgary was delayed by immigration issues and won't be available until after the Monday scrimmage.

https://twitter.com/Fan960Steinberg/status/1346565913235968000

For the curious, nothing has been really said officially about rumoured PTO forward Brett Ritchie. Like Kylington, he would also be required to quarantine before hitting the ice and his arrival would mandate someone else's departure due to the 36 skater limit during training camps.

Flames camp roundup: line shuffles, scrimmage and incoming players

Recent articles from Ryan Pike

Breaking News