Pre-game thoughts: Right back at it

Puck-rakers has released tonight's lineup and without further adu:
F1: Mike York, Jiri Novotny, Jakub Voracek
F2: Craig MacDonald, Steve Kelly, Jared Boll
F3: Andrew Murray, Trevor Frischmon, Maksim Mayorov
F4: Adam Pineault, Blair Yaworski, Derek Dorsett

D1: Jan Hejda, Marc Methot
D2: Richard Matvichuk, Aaron Rome
D3: Grant Clitsome, Jonathan Sigalet

G1: Dan LaCosta
G2: Fredrik Norrena

By my count that is 11 players returning from last night's lineup (including the goalies).

As puck-rakers suggest there isn't a whole lot of meat to that lineup and apparently Minnesota will be icing a veteran laced squad.

That said there are some good stories to watch:

* How does Voracek mess with 4th line guys in York and Novotny? Remember Voracek could very well start further down the lineup and play his way up as the season progresses. By all accounts he played very well last night so we'll see what he can bring on a back2back.

* Hejda to see PP time? That is what Puck-rakers stated this morning. I give credit to Hitch for thinking out of the box but I see this experiment lasting about as long as the Z-at-center one did. Its preseason though so why not try it and I see it as a tip of the cap to Hejda for playing so well under Hitch.

* Grant Clitsome. I love what I've seen thus far from this kid and I'm looking forward to seeing what he can do in game action and an extended look.

* Mayorov gets his first taste of NHL preseason action. He'll be playing along Fritschmon who has impressed this preseason and Mr. Consistent himself Andrew Murray.

* I think we'll see York get a lot of playing time tonight so lets see if he can bring more to the table than last night's performance.

* Look for Dorsett to drop them again. Look for Boll to keep the mitts on. In fact with this lineup I don't see as many dances as we saw last night.

* LaCosta let in 2 goals in 8 shots. Since I didn't see the goals I can't say if they were soft but we'll need a much better save % than that to win tonight.

* The ole vet Matvichuk gets his first bit of game action. Actually I've kind of liked him in camp. No wheels but I never saw this guy out of position.

* Hopefully the AHL vets have better nights than what they showed yesterday.

Game Spotlight

Its really 2 fold for me tonight. I want to see if Voracek can have another strong game and what another youngster in Mayorov can bring to the table.

Its an 8 p.m. EST start tonight. No word yet if Minnesota will be streaming this (we already know Columbus completely dropped the ball) but the games should be on 1460thefan.com and CDC101.com respectively. I'll update this post if I find anything out.

GO JACKETS!

-LTL