Friday Night's Lineup
By Omar Zaman
FORWARDS
Matt Beleskey – Ryan Carter – Troy Bodie
Evgeny Artyukhin – Brandon McMillan – Dan Sexton
Bobby Ryan – Maxime Macenauer – Joffrey Lupul
Ryan Donally – MacGregor Sharp – Mike Brown
DEFENSE
Steve McCarthy – Brian Salcido
Brett Festerling – Nick Boynton
GOALTENDERS
J.P. Levasseur – Timo Pielmeier
One thing that Ducks fans will notice immediately is that Bobby Ryan and Joffrey Lupul are playing on the same line tonight. Look for that to be one of the best lines in the game, as long as Coach Randy Carlyle keeps it together.
There are two players playing tonight that also played yesterday night: Ryan Donally and Brandon McMillan. Could this be because both players made a good impression last night? Maybe Carlyle wants to give them one more chance at NHL-style action before sending them back to their minor league teams. The latter seems more likely given the two didn’t do anything extraordinary in yesterday’s game.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Dan Sexton – Sexton made an impact when he played against Phoenix two nights ago but may have benefited from playing with Bobby Ryan. If Sexton can produce scoring chances again tonight, he should earn a long look by the coaching staff.
Luca Sbisa – Carlyle didn’t exactly have glowing remarks for Sbisa after his last game. If Sbisa doesn’t show enough improvement tonight, the coaching staff might have to make the difficult decision of sending him down to the minors before the start of the regular season.
Jassen Cullimore – This is Cullimore’s first game of the preseason. Given that he is on a pro-tryout agreement, he will leave everything on the ice to earn a contract. If he can outplay defensive partner Sbisa tonight, he will get a longer look and more ice-time in his next preseason game to make that contract a reality.