I'm excited to see the lines at practice today.
I'm also happy with Ward's decision-making so far in training camp. He has been flexible and open-minded, willing to try new things.
I've got some specific lines I'm hoping for, but really I just want to see:
1) 3 F pairings: Tkachuk and Lindholm, Gaudreau and Monahan and Mangiapane and Backlund and
2) Bennett at centre (hoping for Ryan on his RW).
If they have that, they can fill in the rest around it. My personal favourite lines at this point would be:
Tkachuk - Lindholm - Dube (all situations)
Gaudreau - Monahan - Simon (o zone)
Mangiapane - Backlund - Leivo (all situations)
Lucic - Bennett - Ryan (d zone).
Overall, I think this might be my favourite forward group in recent memory. I feel that top 9 is very good. Although I've got them in the order I have them in, I think the Backlund line could easily be the second best line on the team. On some nights, it could even challenge for the best line.
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