Early Lines and Pairings: Sabres, Senators, Red Wings, Ducks, Blackhawks and Bruins
  • Mike Harrington: The Sabres will start camp with Tyler Myers playing with Christian Ehrhoff and not Henrik TallinderMark Pysyk will play with Tallinder.
  • Ian Mendes: Senators coach Paul MacLean said that Clarke MacArthur will start on a line with Kyle Turris. Mark Stone, Cory Conacher and Mike Hoffman will be considered for the other wing.
  • Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press: Early Red Wings lines:  Henrik Zetterberg – Pavel Datsyuk – Justin Abdelkader,  Mikael Samuelsson – Luke Glendening – Jordin Tootoo, Johan Franzen – Stephen Weiss – Daniel Alfredsson, Drew Miller – Cory Emmerton – Patrick Eaves, Anthony Mantha – Andreas Athanisiou – Teemu Pulkkinen, Tyler Bertuzzi. Early Red Wings defensive pairings: Danny DeKeyser-Jakub Kindl, Brian Lashoff – Nathan Paetsch (PTO), Niklas Kronwall-Jonathan Ericsson, Ryan Oullet – Brennan Evans.
  • Eric Stephens: Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau said that he’ll start Dustin Penner with Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry. He likes the pairings of Andrew Cogliano and Saku Koivu, and Nick Bonino with Teemu Selanne.
  • Mark Lazerus: Have to think Brandon Saad is the front-runner over Brandon Pirri for the Blackhawks second line center.
  • Amalie Benjamin of the Boston Globe: The Bruins third line could be a made up from anyone of Chris Kelly, Carl Soderberg, Jordan Caron, Reilly Smith, Matt Fraser, Craig Cunningham, Ryan Spooner and Jared Knight.

    “I think ideally we saw the third line that we liked when we won the Cup,” Julien said of 2011. “Not only were they kind of a dependable line, but they were able to give us some scoring. In a real perfect world, you’ve got your top two lines that you’d like to see score on a regular basis. Your third line should be able to give you some secondary scoring and your third line should also be able to give you some secondary grit that your fourth line gives you. To me they’re caught in the middle where they give you a little bit of both. That’s what we’re looking for from that line.”