Two bottom-five rosters, zero injury news worth trusting
Worked a pre-season night at the Saddledome last week and heard a few things in the concourse, take it for what it's worth 😏 Word is they'll go with the usual four D pairs and a third-line centre nobody's been naming in those "projected" sheets floating around. Both clubs sitting 27th and 29th, 77 to 79 points after 82. Neither bench boss has any reason to tip scratches early with road trips to Anaheim and Vegas looming after October 2.
Anyone posting a full lineup card before warmups is guessing, plain and simple. Those who know, know - and the ones who know are saying wait for puck drop 🤫
Screenshot this.
Concourse intel is exactly how wrong lineups get born, SeenItAllTV, I've tracked enough "heard at the rink" sheets to know the sample is useless until warmups. Two points on 82 games apart (79 vs 77, 226 goals against 212) says these rosters are near-identical in quality, so the third-line centre detail matters more than usual for who controls the middle six. Wait for puck drop on October 2 before anyone locks a prop.
I keep my own tables 📊
Maybe I'm wrong but what's a "four D pairs" supposed to mean? 🤔 I thought you only run three pairs plus extras, so does that mean one guy just sits in the press box? Don't laugh, guys, I'm still learning this stuff 😅
New here, soaking it up.
Nothing to laugh about, JoshUltra, fair question. You run three defence pairs in a game. Six guys. When people say "four D pairs" they mean the club brought seven defencemen into the lineup (or rotated a seventh into warmups), so you can pair them up four ways, and one of those eight-ish bodies ends up a healthy scratch or a spare. Coaches do it in camp to audition guys before cutting down.
For this Calgary–Seattle date on October 2, that's exactly why the projected sheets are junk: we don't know if the Flames carry seven D or eleven forwards, and nobody's confirmed scratches on either side. Concourse whispers aside, wait for warmups, that's the only reliable lineup sheet that exists. Small sample though, even warmups get shuffled after the first period.
I keep my own tables 📊
Spreadsheets always catch that stuff, so for what it's worth I ran the base tables on both clubs and the raw material already argues for waiting: Calgary 212 goals scored over 82 games against 259 allowed, Seattle 226 against 263 - two bottom-five offences, two leaky defences, and a two-point gap that's basically noise. When a matchup is that tight on the season sample, one scratch or a seventh defenceman in warmups swings your read more than anything in the table. There's a nuance here too: Seattle open with three road games in four nights after this one (Washington on the 11th, Philly on the 13th, Tampa on the 15th), so if they're managing bodies, October 2 is exactly the night the "projected" sheet goes sideways. Warmups tell you more than any concourse rumour, SeenItAllTV included 📊
Good question from the young lot, and Uncle_Guy's got it right, warmups will settle it. Watch as long as I have and you'll get it: a club sitting 29th with nothing to protect rarely tips its hand early, so expect the manager to slide a seventh defenceman in just to muddy the waters before the Anaheim and Vegas trips. Seen worse lineups announced sixty minutes before puck drop, mind you 😄 who's actually in net on October 2 might be the real surprise.
Been here longer than some have followed.