[DJones]

Originally Posted by handgroen

interesting to think how the 6th spot on the flames could (just my theory) dictate all the pairings.

if it's wotherspoon, then i'm okay with having wideman pair with him as the 5th defender, and then play lots of PP minutes. wideman's an experienced guy, offensive minded, right shot. to go with the rookie wotherspoon's left shot, simple d-minded game.

if it's morrison, then having him paired with russell on the bottom pairing makes perfect sense to me. morrison's an offensive minded right shooting rookie. russell is a defensively responsible experienced lefty.

if spoon makes it these are my pairings:

giordano - brodie
LH LH

Russel - Hamilton
LH RH

Wotherspoon - Wideman
LH RH

Engelland
RH

Good balance, spoon sees the least ice time as wideman plays PP minutes and Russel and Hamilton are your top PK pairing. Gio and brodie get a crack at going back to being the best pairing in hockey.


If morrison makes it these are my pairings.

Giordano - Hamilton
LH RH

Brodie - Wideman
LH RH

Russell - Morrison
LH RH

Engelland
RH

Lefty/righty on each pair. Hamilton gets to play top minutes with a great leader. wideman/brodie would be a damned good 2nd pairing and gives wideman an opportunity to put up points again this year. russell/morrison pairs the raw rookie with a good teacher, and russell will still get good minutes on the PK.

the only scenario i can't picture, is that the pairing of russell/wideman, which was so terrific for us down the stretch last season, stick together as the second pairing. with brodie gio and hamilton all being top flight talent i cannot picture any of them moving down to 3rd pairing minutes.

BTW i may have been thinking about this a little too much lately.

That almost makes me aroused haha