Day 2: Coaches Corner

Day 3 is here, and the coaching staff has released the lines to be used tonight versus the Selects. Let's get into them.

Forwards
Draper - Demitra - Murray
Korolyuk - Jokinen - Ekman
Frolov - Halpern - Horton
Malone - Legwand - Isbister

Putting Jokinen between Korky and Ekman meant dropping Frolov to the third line, where hopefully he and Horton can create even more balance. Draper as top LW is an experiment, but Demitra and Murray have a productive history together and I didn't want to drop Draper to the third line. Draper as the second center was also an option, but Jokinen is a better passer to set up his wingmen. Isbister is on a short leash; he was signed to score, but if he doesn't pan out quickly, Hall and Malhotra are waiting to take his place. He tallied in one of his two exhibition games, so we're hoping for the best.. even though it's known that he'll be getting limited minutes.

Defense
Regehr Pronger
Johnsson Brewer
Hulse Pronger
Johnsson Hill
Regehr Brewer

I started playing the defense in a five-pairing configuration last season after seeing a few coaches around the league doing the same. I like how it allows the bottom pairing guys to be help by the top pair (Pronger and Johnsson) without sacrificing the top guys total ice-time. The puck movers (Pronger, Johnsson, Brewer) and the physical guys (Pronger, Regehr, Hill, Hulse) are pretty well balanced. I've been happy with how the ice-time is distributed with this setup, so it will probably continue for the time being. Hulse over Liles isn't a slag on John-Michael, but Cale played very well (and a lot) in two exhibition games and Liles at this point is more of a PP specialist and better suited to be brought along slowly.

Goaltender: Gerber

Marty is our #1 guy, so we'll see right off the top how he handles a pretty good offense. Mason will get his fair share with so many back-to-back games, but to start the season we want to see how Gerber will play behind our defense corps. Only when we establish his level of play with our current Dmen can we evaluate if we need to change things up. So for the time being, it's Gerber.