LINEUP NOTES - 03.12.19

Nothing's written in stone.
But with a new voice at the helm, and four full days between games, interim boss Geoff Ward wanted to switch things up and get some additional intel on future combos, if the need arises.
It's an experiment, of sorts, to better prep the players for any situation, in-game.

"You guys will see a lot of different things from me," Ward laughed. "I'll try and keep you informed as much as I can before everyone's banging the Twitter - I'll save you from having to go back and do it again.
"I want to see things before we need or before we think about using them in games. I want to have an idea of who can play with who, and potential combinations.

"If we have to shorten (the bench), I want guys that are on our fourth line to be able to fit with guys on the other lines and be comfortable playing with them. You'll see a variety of different things from me.
"More so, from my standpoint, of trying to learn about the players and try to see where we can plug them in and what is the best fit for them."
Here are the forward line combinations and D pairs used at Tuesday's practice:

FORWARDS

Matthew Tkachuk - Elias Lindholm - Andrew Mangiapane
Sean Monahan - Mikael Backlund - Dillon Dube
Milan Lucic - Derek Ryan - Johnny Gaudreau
Tobias Rieder - Mark Jankowski - Michael Frolik
Austin Czarnik, Zac Rinaldo

DEFENCE

Mark Giordano - TJ Brodie
Noah Hanifin - Travis Hamonic
Oliver Kylington - Rasmus Andersson
Michael Stone

GOALTENDERS

David Rittich
Cam Talbot