Hitch is rolling out the big dawgs on Friday

Puck-rakers just released the lineup for tomorrow nights game and as expected, its a doozy:

F1: Rick Nash, Derick Brassard, Kristian Huselius
F2: Fredrik Modin, R.J. Umberger, Jake Voracek
F3: Jason Chimera, Manny Malhotra, Andrew Murray
F4: Tom Sestito, Derek MacKenzie, Adam Pineault

D1: Fedor Tyutin, Rostislav Klesla
D2: Jan Hejda, Mike Commodore
D3: Christian Backman, Kris Russell

G1: Pascal Leclaire
G2: Dan LaCosta

We get our first looks at what will likely be our scoring lines and starting top 6 on defense. The only regulars missing are Peca, Novotny, Boll, Torres and Norrena.

I think the only two players to see action in the first three games are Murray and Voracek.

Not a whole lot of muscle in this lineup but with the likes of Sestito and Commodore they should be able to handle things if/when the game gets chippy.

I would have liked to have seen Dorsett (pictured right knocking the feathers out of a 'hawk) in the mix but after two straight nights of dropping them (and taking a nasty hit) he'll get rest. I look for him to play in Nashville along with Mirasty.

The quesiton is how does Nashville respond? Do they match it with a veteran heavy lineup or hold back until their home game the following night?

Make no mistake about it though, this lineup tells me that Hitch wants to win this game tomorrow night. He is also giving the fans a good lineup for their hard earned dollars.

The NHL is in the process of rolling out its new web page design. Check it out here.

The design is nice and I think does a better job of using the NHL's shield colors as its primary pallet on the web site. The roll over team logos are a nice touch as well.

A poster forwarded me this link (thanks BHG!) from Maxim magazine and it gives us 10 reasons to care about the NHL.

I'm tellin ya, its the season of top 10 lists!

Puck-rakers also notes that Nikita Filatov skated today on his own and will do so again tomorrow. If all goes well over the next few days he could play at home either next Thursday or Friday.

-LTL