As most of you know for the past few years Sutter has been the bench boss for the Calgary Flames. During his tenure, the combinations of the Flames lines has been tenative at best. In fact, during certain spells of the '05 season it seemed that Sutter was far too egalitaritan with this line up, and, much like a pee wee hockey team, everyone got to have a go on the first line.
Since then, Sutter has moved into the GM role full time and passed on the coaching duties to Jim Playfair. Although Sutter led our squad to hieghts not seen since the late eighties, one change that has some fans looking forward to this year is more consistant lineups. With the off-season aquisition of Alex Tanguay, the big question surronding the squad is; who will play with Iggy and Tanguay?
Earlier today that answer was made public by the Flames website (Calgaryflames.com) and the news is positive.
Positive that is, unless your a Matthew Lombardi fan.
Damond Langkow has been tapped to play the first line center position between two of the leagues elite scorers. Neither Iggy nor Alex had a spectactular pre-season, and could the calming influence of a vertern like Damond could be just what these two need? I certainly hope so.
Lombo, who has shown brillant play as often as he has struggled, will be holding court in the middle between Huselius and Amonte on the club's second line. An interesting note for all you fans out there; Amonte is slotted to play right wing, despite the fact that he shoots left. In fact, everyone on the second line is a lefty. Friesen, Nilson and last year's 20 goal man Kobasew round out the forwards on the third line.
A question that springs up in my mind; has Chuck fallen out of favor?
He is a natural right winger, has blazing speed (as evident from him constantly crashing into the boards), and a bit of a goal scorers touch. Yet he finds himself on the third line, while a natural left winger is up playing on the second. Most Flames fans will tell you that Chuck's inconsistancey is his worst quality. On a team of streaky players, he is stands out as the team's classic hot and cold guy. When he plays well he is a hurricane of activity, constantly skating hard and always around the puck. When he is cold, one must check the program to make sure that he was even on the ice at all. Perhaps Jim has decided to use this as a motivation tool for the young forward. Or perhaps he has been paired with two of Flames better defensive forwards in an effort to find a line that can shut down the oppositions big guns. In either case, it will be interesting to see if Chucky plays his way into more ice time, or falters and is an in-and-out man in the lineup.
The defensive pairings hold no surprises to anyone who has watched the Flames in preseason action. The top two will be Robyn Regehr and Dion Phaneuf, followed by A. Ference and Giordano. The final two spots of the Flames reargaurd will be filled by two talented verterns in Roman Hamrlik and Andre Zyuzin, both of whom stuggled during exhibition play.
To no ones surprise, last years 'All world goalie' and Vezina trophy winner Mikka will be between the pipes.
I am not naive enough to think that this is going to be the lineup for the entire season, (especially with Yeller out of the lineup with an injury) so I am left with only one question; how long before we see a significant change to these three sets?
We will have to wait and see...
