Head Coach Randy Carlyle has guarded tonight’s lineup as if it were a regular season game. The only news that’s been squeezed out from him has been that Ryan Getzlaf will most likely not play tonight because playing him in “back-to-back (games) wouldn’t be smart.” It’s good that the Ducks are being cautious with the big center, but look for him to play on Sunday night against the Kings
Also look for Carlyle to get Kyle Calder, Logan MacMillan, Troy Bodie, Ryan Donally, Erik Christensen, and Andrew Ebbett some ice time tonight as the coaching staff makes final decisions on the regular season roster. NHL teams can only carry 23 players at the start of the regular season.
The Ducks also announced that they’ve sent defencemen Mark Mitera down to San Antonio of the AHL. As I noted in this post, Mitera was only with the Ducks to get a taste of the NHL and not challenge for a roster spot. The move leaves the Ducks with nine defencemen remaining on their training camp roster. If you saw last night’s game you probably think that Brendan Mikkelson is a lock for one of the final spots, and that Luca Sbisa will most likely take the other.
In other news, former Duck winger Rob Niedermayer signed a one-year, $1 million contract with the New Jersey Devils. I wrote about the importance of Nidermayer as part of the checking line in this article earlier today. He is expected to play as a Center on the third line. Once again, the Devils and Ducks each have a Niedermayer on their side, though this time it is reversed. Ducks fans would more than welcome a return trip to the Stanley Cup Finals for both teams.
Sorry fans…no TV for tonight’s game.
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