Opening Night Starting Lineups!

[Penguin]

Always fun to see what teams will look like at the beginning of the season. Write up your lineups, predictions, expectations, get the excitement going!



LINE 1: JAROME IGINLA (#12) - CODY HODGSON (#19) - FILIP FORSBERG (#9)

Moved captain Iggy to LW to make room for former Avalanche Forsberg on the big line. I expect nothing less than 82pts from all 3 of them.

LINE 2: JAMES van RIEMSDYK (#21) - ANZE KOPITAR(#11) - NICKLAS JENSEN(#46)

Former Canucks Jensen joins the dynamic duo of Kopitar and JVR to make it hell on earth for opposing teams. This line will fuck you up, in every way possible.

LINE 3: ROSTISLAV OLESZ(#85) - JESSE WINCHESTER(#18) - JOEL ARMIA(#20)

Armia comes back to the team that drafted him to patrol the 3rd line. He's also going to be on the 1st line PP unit. Winchester and Olesz bring a defensive game for the line to shutdown opposing teams' top lines.

LINE 4: DAN FRITSCHE (#49) - BLAIR BETTS (#15) - TYLER PITLICK (#7)

Nothing really to mention about this line. Veteran Betts was brought in to win faceoffs and the other 2 kids will prove what they got with short minutes of ice.

DEF PAIRING 1: JONATHON BLUM (#42) - PAUL RANGER (#17)

Jonathon Blum is expected to be the general on defense. All eyes are on him and we expect a huge season on his final year of his contract. Ranger will provide the defensive stability and murder people.

DEF PAIRING 2: DANIEL GUNNARSSON (#21) - FEDOR TYUTIN (#51)

Tyutin was another player brought back to Pittsburgh to fill the void that was made by the shocking trade with Colorado. He was once traded for Chara, now he has to fill his shoes, big ones! Gunnarsson will have a more important role, being moved from the 3rd unit to the 2nd unit, facing better players.

DEF PAIRING 3: DAN GIRARDI (#5) - KEVIN BIEKSA (#3)

Girardi and Bieksa should complete each other well, one being a passer, one being a shooter, both having decent defensive game. They will be paired up on special teams also.

STARTING GOALIE: RICK DiPIETRO (#39)

Slick Rick gets a chance to prove he was the goalie who was drafted 1st OA in 2000. 1 year contract at a low price, he should be motivated.

BACKUP GOALIE: JUSTIN POGGE (#1)

Pogge was excellent as a backup last year, but was awful in pre-season this year when playing more games every week. Better suited as a backup.


Standings prediction: 1st in the East, 2nd behind Phoenix in EHEC.

[Commish Bub(NYR)]

Adam Graves - Mark Messier - Andy Bathgate
Vic Hadfield - Jean Ratelle - Rod Gilbert
Steve Vickers - Walt Tkaczuk - Jaromir Jagr
Bun Cook - Frank Boucher - Bill Cook

Brian Leetch - Brad Park
Harry Howell - Ron Greschner
Ivan "Ching" Johnson - Barry Beck

Mike Richter - Henrik Lundqvist

[SharksGM]

Jagr's only a third line winger? Sheesh.

If we're giving smart-ass answers, I've got one:

1st line LW - 1st line C - 1st line RW
2nd line LW - 2nd line C - 2nd line RW
3rd line LW - 3rd line C - 3rd line RW
4th line LW - 4th line C - 4th line RW

1st pair LD - 1st pair RD
2nd pair LD - 2nd pair RD
3rd pair LD - 3rd pair RD

#1 G
Backup G

Head Coach
Assistant #1
Assistant #2
Assistant #3

Trainer #1
Trainer #2

Person in a man-sized shark suit

[GM Office Q]

Miller / Duchene / Gusev
Osala / Landeskog / Saad
Ponikarovsky / Stoll / Hejduk
McGinn / O'Reilly / Downie

Doughty / Whitney
Chara / Klein
Hamilton / Wideman

Backstrom
Bishop

[CapsGM]

LINE 1: Zach Parise / Pavel Datsyuk [C] / Vladimir Tarasenko

Could be one of the highest scoring lines in the league if Tarasenko figures out his life. But throw a big hit early on any of these guys and they're butthurt for the rest of the game.

LINE 2: Wojtek Wolski / Olli Jokinen / David Booth

Two shiny new acquisitions flanking old man OJ, who's going back to his natural center position after playing wing for 2.5 years. A notch below the second lines of PIT and MTL, so one of these guys may be on a different line or team if an upgrade must be made.

LINE 3: Jean-Pierre Dumont / Gregory Hofmann / Philippe Di Giuseppe

Third line that can play any line tactic. Hofmann and PDG will likely be the top PK unit as well.

LINE 4: Brian Lashoff / David Steckel / Fernando Pisani

Meh.

DEFENSE PAIRING 1: Morgan Rielly [A] / Karl Alzner

Rielly's taken over as the #1 defenseman and he still has room to grow. Alzner will continue to be the rock that nobody can get around.

DEFENSE PAIRING 2: Andrei Markov [A] / Cam Barker

Markov will start the season on the second pairing to shelter his minutes a bit. Either player may move up to the first pairing depending on team and individual performance.

DEFENSE PAIRING 3: Zbynek Michalek / Shaone Morrisonn

Last time Morrisonn was on the Caps, he was the #2 defenseman. Glad that's not the case anymore, because he was clueless. We shouldn't have traded Cohen - he would have been a beast on this pairing.

STARTING GOALTENDER: Simeon Varlamov

No surprise here.

BACKUP GOALTENDER: Justin Peters

He hates his contract already.

[Parker]

LINE 1: BRETT CONNOLLY (#14) - MIKE RICHARDS (A) (#10) - SHANE DOAN (C) (#19)

Finally, going into our fifth season, I have a first line that I'm completely satisfied with - these guys can BALL.

LINE 2: VLADISLAV KARTAYEV (#9) - JORDAN STAAL (#11) - JOE BASARABA (#18)

Hitting, hitting, hitting, more hitting. And some scoring too. Slava Namestnikov has the skills for a spot here but he's not strong enough yet. He'll be breathing down Bazooka Joe's neck next year though. Joseph Labate's also an option a year or two away.

LINE 3: RYAN STONE (#33) - TOMAS HERTL (#90) - VIKTOR TIKHONOV (#41)

Stone gets promoted to the 3rd line, 2012 1st rounder Hertl gets promoted from Portland despite a pretty uninspiring effort in preseason play (lucky for him he's a faceoff specialist), and VikTik just keeps doin' his thing.

LINE 4: CHRIS BROWN (#4) - DANIEL WINNIK (#34) - JIM VANDERMEER (#2)

Chris Brown needs to prove he can beat up more than just Rihanna before he loses his new NHL job to someone like Logan Shaw or Gal Koren. Jim Vandermeer returns from a two-year pilgrimage to the Eastern Conference, and Daniel Winnik returns for another fun-filled year of complaining about his icetime.

DEF PAIRING 1: OLIVER EKMAN-LARSSON (#23) - MARK ALT (#20)

Ollie E-L keeps getting better, and if he can keep his nose clean this year (ten-game suspension in 2012-13) then he could be a dark horse contender for the Norris Trophy. Meanwhile, Alt is solid on both sides of the puck and continues to get stronger.

DEF PAIRING 2: KYLE QUINCEY (#27) - ALEX GRANT (#22)

Quincey keeps racking up the hits, takeaways, and second assists. Nouveau Riche Alex Grant is still getting into game shape after a summer spent enjoying the luxuries a $3.35M salary can provide. Grant continues to insist he wants to be part of the team despite trade rumors circulating due to Phoenix's dissatisfaction with his new contract. A good start to the season for him may help to allay those rumors.

DEF PAIRING 3: KURT SAUER (A) (#44) - BRYAN ALLEN (#5)

"Krippler" Sauer returns to full-time duty as the losses of Erik Gudbransson and Ed Jovanovski thinned the team's defensive depth. Sauer is a force in his own end when he can avoid the penalty box and league discipline for causing injuries. Newcomer Bryan Allen returns to the NHL after a year on sabbatical, and brings another solid physical defensive presence to the Coyotes blueline. Ricard Blidstrand returns to Portland to bulk up, but is expected to contribute soon. Sam Grist is also knocking on the door but he'll be held back a little longer to work on his positioning.

STARTING GOALIE: ILYA BRYZGALOV (#30)

In the same way a man can be a hard worker and a good husband & father his whole life, but if he fucks one goat he'll always be known as a goatfucker, Ilya Bryzgalol will always be known as the goatfucking sieve who gave up the Western Conference Championship-winning goal to Garnet Fucking Exelby, a guy who had never scored an EHEC playoff goal and has managed to put up a total of FIVE fucking goals in his entire EHEC career... but yeah, Bryzgalol mostly gets the job done and is occasionally brilliant (his work during Phoenix's 16-game winning streak was unbelievable) and we don't have anyone better, so Bryzgalov is The Man once again. Matt McNeely might one day disagree, though consistency isn't exactly HIS strong suit either.

BACKUP GOALIE: THOMAS GREISS (#1)

He's not Alex Auld.

Matt McNeely was briefly considered for the backup role, but he's a little unproven and he didn't exactly lock it down in the preseason. Also, Greiss has been pretty darn good for a guy who only gets in a game here and there or when I'm mad at Bryzgalol. Matt McNeely will tandem with Scotty Darling in Portland for now.

Standings prediction: Jesus, I don't know. 2nd in the conference, 5th overall. Thanks for jinxing me, Bern.

[Edmonton Mike]

1st Line: Dany Heatley - Jordan Eberle - Alexander Frolov

This line could do a lot of damage and then some. Heatley is a perennial 40 goal scorer while his linemates both have the potential to get to 30.

2nd line: JF Jacques - Brad Richards (C) - Scott Hartnell

Richards is poised for a bounceback season and he has two bruisers around him to help. Jacques and Hartnell should get 40 goals between them and break bones doing so. Goals. Hits. Penalties.

3rd line: Toni Rajala - Mirko Hoefflin - Austin Watson

The Kid Line. The oldest of the three at 22, Rajala has all the potential in the world to become a scoring machine; although consistency might hold him back. Hoefflin would be a 2nd line center if he could handle the workload. He's the best on this team at taking draws. Watson can do a little bit of everything. I expect these kids to play a reliable defensive game and get a couple goals every now and then. I would feel comfortable promoting one of these 3 if the injury bug were to bite.

4th line: Ian White - Marty Reasoner - Zack Stortini

White was signed as a UFA expected to fight for a job on the blue line. Change of plans, he's now playing left wing. He's played well enough in the pre-season to play on a regular basis. Reasoner brings experience, leadership and he'll be helpful on the dot. These guys will get very little icetime and I'll be on the lookout to make this line better moving forward.

1st DEF pair: Luke Schenn - Marc Staal

What you see is what you get.

2nd DEF pair: John Negrin - Chris Summers

Summers will be hurting people from the puck drop to the whistle. Expectations in Negrin will be met if he ends up a team leader in the +/- and shots blocked columns come April.

3rd DEF pair: Tom Gilbert - Dylan Olsen

Gilbert is the team's best offensive defenseman but he is on thin ice. Very thin ice. His $4.0M salary and Jacob Trouba's excellent performance in pre-season are no strangers as to why team management may not be very patient with the 30 year old veteran. Olsen is only 22 years old and will fight for icetime on the PK unit. He's also fared well so far in September.

Starting Goaltender: Samu Perhonen

The 20 year old rookie was a can't-miss prospect going into the 2011 Entry Draft. The highly touted Finnish netminder is the future of the franchise between the pipes. The future is now.

Back-up Goaltender: Jeff Deslauriers

Deslauriers will handle back-up duty and is likely on his way out. If Perhonen is as good as advertised, the Oilers will most certainely look for a cheaper alternative down the road.

[Calgary.Flames]

1st line: DAVID KREJCI - PHIL KESSEL - SAM GAGNER
The expectations are high. All three could produce at a PPG ratio. Kessel was a scoring machine when he was brought in last season to play with his old friend David Krejci. Gagner is a defensive wizard.

2nd line: NIKOLAI ZHERDEV - SHAWN MATTHIAS - NIKITA FILATOV
The 2nd line will have a new look this season. Bobby Ryan's departure left an open spot on this line that the management didn't fill. Shawn Matthias has been promoted to pivot the russian wingers and he's proven in the past that he's capable of handling top 6 duties.

3rd line: WAYNE SIMMONDS - TOMAS FILIPPI - MAXIM LAPIERRE
Tomas Filippi was last year's fan favorite. He was acquired from San Jose where he scored 17 points in his rookie season. The kid had big shoes to fill when he was asked to take on Ryan Stoa's spot in the lineup. Oh boy! Did he answered the call!
He went on and scored 66 points and turned heads all around the league. He is now asked to move to center and to be the cornerstone of the bruising 3rd line. Lapierre will do what he always does, hit people and take pucks away while Wayne Simmonds will finally see more ice time to prove himself.

4th line: QUINTON HOWDEN - JORDIN TOOTOO - ARRON ASHAM
Howden might be sent down for development at some point because this line won't see much ice. This is a line filled with scrappers, specially when Big Georges Laraque takes Howden's LW spot. I've already marked the calendar for the games against Phoenix and Anaheim.

1st DEF pairing: DION PHANEUF - SCOTT NIEDERMAYER
One of the league's best duo. Dion Phaneuf is a franchinse type defenseman and Captain Scotty still has a lot of game in him. Those guys can absolutely do it all and win games by themselves.

2nd DEF pairing: CHRIS CAMPOLI - RYAN MURPHY
Chris Campoli was brought in to take on Jani Hakanpaa's spot and he will be paired with newly acquired Ryan Murphy. Originally drafted by Calgary, Ryan was brought back from LA where he spent the last calendar year. Those guys will be the team's specialists. Campoli can play defense with the best of them and Murphy is a natural powerplay quarterback.

3rd DEF pairing: STÉPHANE ROBIDAS - PAVEL KUBINA
I'm really pleased about this upcoming season's bottom pairing defensemen on my team. There wasn't much offense coming out of Mihalik and Exelby last year. Robidas and Kubina have enough offense to their game to help the team's overall scoring, they are proven veterans, they are physical and I remember Pavel Kubina can be a crippler some times.

Healthy Scratches: GARNET EXELBY - GEORGES LARAQUE
Those guys provide leadership and they can be called upon if injuries were to hit the team.

Goalie: KIPPER
He's been our workhorse for as long as I can remember. He still is one of the league's best masked man.

Backup Goalie: JONAS HILLER
Pretty solid guy for what will be asked of him. He will complain all year about his contract. Let's hope he doesn't become a distraction to the team.


Prediction: As the reigning Western Champion, all I can say is that repeating seems almost impossible.

[Montreal Canadiens]

LINE 1: JOE PAVELSKI [83/72/76] - MARC SAVARD [82/64/75] - ALES HEMSKY [86/74/79]

Does this line really need an introduction? Savard has been one of the top 5 scorers in the league over the past 2 seasons, (a combined 190 points over 162 games). Ales Hemsky, always been a stablemate of Marc Savard, always over a PPG (or right at it) seemingly always gets hurt so I'm hoping for a full season from him. Pavelski is a new full-time member, played 18 games on the top line last year with 18 points. I'm expecting 100+ points from Savard, and 80 ish from Hemsky, and 65 from Pavelski.

LINE 2: ANDREI KOSTITSYN [86/76/80] - DAVID BACKES [75/85/79] - NICK BJUGSTAD [79/77/76]

I built this line up last year to compete with the juggernaut of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Did quite well, went to a game 7 and lost by a goal. Our team is just as strong this year so these guys will be relied upon to play a huge two-way game. Kostitsyn had 42 goals last year and we will need another season of 40-45. Bjugstad had a huge pre-season with 10 points, hoping that continues. I expect Kostitsyn to be upwards of 90-95 points with Bjugstad & Backes around the 60-70 mark.

LINE 3: MIKE FISHER [65/75/75] - PETER HOLLAND [68/71/75] - KYLE CHIPCHURA [53/77/71]

Completely new-look 3rd line this year. Usually this line for me was one-way defensive players. Now have a good balance I think. Holland will win 65-70 % of the draws which hopefully will keep the puck out of our net. Since he'll get PP time I'm expecting roughly around 40 points for Holland. 30 for Fisher, 20 for Chipchura.

LINE 4: JOEL WARD [66/72/71] - JOONAS NATTINEN [55/72/69] - TRAVIS MOEN [56/72/69]

Youngster Joonas Nattinen has won the 4th line C role due to a huge pre-season. He gets the start, but will have a close eye over him. All I ask is they finish around even in plus/minus and give me 10-20 points.

DEF PAIRING 1: COLBY COHEN [55/82/73] - DAN BOYLE [82/71/76]

I'm a bit unsure on this pairing. I think throughout the whole year my d's will be flipped around depending on matchups, home/away, etc but to start, this is what I'll go out with. Boyle is an offensive stud, and Cohen a defensive stud. Cohen also has high PLY that I hope will contribute to a lot of points for my top line.

DEF PAIRING 2: CARLO COLAIACOVO [68/76/72] - MIKE COMMODORE [42/78/68]

Fresh off a new deal and no Fedor Tyutin I expect more of the same, shocking consistent work from Colaiacovo. I'll take the 25-30 points and an even. Don't care what Commodore does, he's here until the new year until Matheson is ready. Just go hit some ppl.

DEF PAIRING 3: ERIC BREWER [60/78/73] - LUCA SBISA [71/76/73]

Luca might be flipped around a lot with Boyle or Cohen depending on who's hot, the matchups, etc but for now here's his pairing. I quite like it, I think him and Brewer are a solid tandem and should produce in an NZT role and help out with getting guys like Holland and Fisher some points.

STARTING GOALIE: CAREY PRICE [84/85/82]

I believe Carey Price (and the Habs) fell 1 win short of a Conn Smythe Trophy for the netminder. Price had a ridiculous line going last playoffs, 2.39 GAA and a .908 SPCT. Price last year had 40 wins, I see him finishing with the same if not more this year. 2.49 GAA and .892 SPCT was a bit low in the regular season last year so I'd like to see some better numbers.

BACKUP GOALIE: BRANDON WHITNEY [75/73/72]

Whitney won the job due to Frans Tuohimaa being $1.5M per season and Whitney only being $1M per year. Don't really have any expectations. He's got 12 games to play. Get some wins. If he struggles, I'll flip him with Dan Ellis. Both suck. Who's going to be the better of two evils, we shall see.

PREDICTION: The only prediction I'm going to make is the Montreal Canadiens will capture their 2nd straight division title. Hopefully come 2nd overall in the East, but will be a dogfight with the Pens/Caps.

[MinnesotaGM]

Line 1

Kabanov 85/72 Hopkins 86/72 Yakupov 83/71
Del Zotto 79/80 Pysyk 75/79

Line 2

Rattie 78/63 Marleau 79/69 Oshie 82/66
Vishnovsky 80/69 Marchenko 82/70

Line 3

Sheppard 58/77 Mueller 79/71 Lewis 55/77
Grossman 68/75 Schultz 59/76

Line 4

Werek 66/74 Guite 49/73 Kaspar 70/80

Goalies
Starter: Subban
Back up: Harding


Nothing to exciting still 2-3 years away from competing

[SharksGM]

Serious answer:

Cogliano - Thornton - Radulov

All 83+ off forwards to do the scoring. I might mode Cogliano down to 2LW or even 3C to balance things more if necessary.

Telegin - Getzlaf - Clowe

Grindy-grind-grind. Three 89+ hitting forwards will grind you to dust. Yes, you personally, not your fake hockey players.

Schwartz - Skille - Cole

A bit of everything on one line - sniper/PF winger, playmaking winger and dangling center. Maybe not the strongest defensive 3rd line, NZT should help them check better and maybe put up some points.

Stempniak - Okposo - Tornkvist

Another line with less-than-stellar defense, they should make up for it with a couple of bruisers (Okposo & Tornkvist) and maybe pot a few goals through Stempniak.

Klefbom - Forbort

Two solid young offensive defenseman start the season paired together to put up points with the top line. Both could easily manage 50 points each; the question is if they an keep up the defense.

Kronwall - Komisarek

A shutdown pair to go along with Getzlaf's line. Could be split up to balance out the defense - Kronwall can only move the puck so well.

Beauchemin - Rozsival

Two vets anchor the bottom pair. Beauchemin is likely to stay there all season; Rozsival could move up as a recent con boost makes him a solid all-around defender who's too good to hang around the bottom pair for long, although he'll certainly get special teams time.

Hayes & Zaytsev will provide the youthful, league-minimum 13th forward and 7th defenseman every team needs.

Vasilevski starts in goal. After a solid regular season in the AHL (and mediocre playoffs), he's basically being handed the starting role. If he struggles, Jake Allen is a reliable backup who needs to impress to get a new contract next season, so the competition should be... well, at least existent, if not fierce.

Prediction: BEST EVAR.

[DaveG-Canes]

Line 1: Zach Boychuk (23) - Eric Staal (12) - Tuomo Ruutu (15)

Boychuk with the skill and Ruutu with the physicality to back up perennial MVP candidate Staal. Essentially the same top line as last season.

Line 2: Dustin Penner (27) - Brandon Sutter (16) - Mikko Koivu (8)

Yeah you don't fuck with this line, they fuck with you. Solid offensively, defensively, and all physical and BIG. This is the BBC line reincarnate, only they've stuck together for multiple seasons now. Good luck trying to stop them.

Line 3: Artem Voronin (77) - Andreas Dahlstrom (55) - Teemu Pulkkinen (56)
The 2010 Line. All 3 players, from the same draft, with only Pulkkinen having any kind of long term impact to this point. That's not a negative on the other two, just an indication that they weren't needed at the top level before now aside from callups.

Line 4: Tom Kostopoulos (29) - Wayne Primeau (22) - Mike Brown (18)
Your typical 4th line, nothing more nothing less.

Extras: Jussi Jokinen (36), Nicolas Blanchard (72)
Jussi the offensive replacement, Blanchard the physical/defensive replacement

Top Pairing: Joni Pitkanen (25) - Casey Borer (53)
The mix of the offensive specialist and the shutdown specialist. It's possible that they may be the 2nd pairing by the end of the coming season but that remains to be seen.

Second Pairing: Bohumil Jank (44) - Kevin Gravel (5)
One of the top young pairings in the league, with a solid combination of offense and defense and an ability to play in any situation. May be moved up to the top pairing by seasons end.

Third Pairing: Tim Gleason (6) - Jamie McBain (4)
The typical defense/offense specialist mix for a 3rd pairing, though Gleason's pretty solid offensively in his own right. While not an exceptional 3rd pairing it's more then capable of contributing, with McBain also being slotted as a PPQB.

Extra: Niclas Wallin (7)
Decent spare to have around. Offensively he's nothing special but the Canes don't need special offensively on their blueline. Defensively he's capable of replacing either bottom pairing option with no dropoff.

Starter: Cam Ward (30)
Backup: Benjamin Conz (31)
While not elite, Cam's as solid as they get, and Conz is a very capable backup on a very very cheap contract.

First callups: C: Nick Cousins, W: Thomas Wilson, D: Brett "BelleORR" Bellemore, G: Matt Mahalak (and a prayer that the season's not royally boned)

Prediction: