Nyquist-Zetterberg-Mantha
Athanasiou-Nielsen-Vanek
Tatar-Sheahan-Larkin
Miller-Glendening-Abdelkader
defense pairs at skate:
DeKeyser-Green
Ericsson-Marchenko
Ouellet-Jensen
Looks like Sproul scratched. Kronwall (groin) skating.
Coreau
If Jensen plays tonight it will be his 10th game, so he would need to clear waivers to be sent down to @griffinshockey
At least Abdelkader practiced in the spot he should be playing right now- on the 4th line.
People have said we "need" Larkin to grow at center. It'd be ideal but he still doesn't appear ready- he's better off a wing for now. I honestly thought Sheahan should have gone back to center earlier, he is useless as a winger. He's a very responsible center (though offensively challenged) like Andersson and Emmerton and down the middle is the only position he's had any success in.
AA hasn't been on the "out of this world on fire" level of great that a few believe but he's been good enough and deserves to develop on the second line. That's a heady pair of guys, Nielsen and Vanek- good for Athanasiou to be given the time there (say instead of Larkin or Tatar).
D pairs make the best sense with what we have to work with. Keep guys in the pairing they deserve to be in instead of mixing up and down.
Out of our 3 rookie D I guess I'm on the Jensen train. Between all 3 I don't see a huge variance in ability. They skate the puck out of trouble, make good passes, win battles, etc with about the same effectiveness. For a smaller player Jensen isn't afraid of contact in any way. I agree with Blashill's assessment- he "attacks" the game. He has by far the best skating up ice when he goes, huge full strides- he is the definition of proper power skating technique. Sproul has a truly wicked shot but joining the rush or carrying the puck in Jensen looks the most comfortable IMO. He's only played 9 NHL games I'm enjoying his NHL try-out for now.
Coreau in net is asinine. He isn't 1/2 the goalie Mrazek is. Oh well what does it matter at this point...
