Lineup For Monday’s Preseason Game Against Pittsburgh Revealed

Today the Minnesota Wild announced lines for Monday’s preseason match against the Pittsburgh Penguins in St. Paul. Here’s the lineup:

Forwards
Parise-Granlund-Pominville
Vanek-Koivu-Coyle
Cooke-Brodziak-Schroeder
Keranen/Veilleux-Almond-Phillips

Defensemen
Suter-Brodin
Scandella-Folin
Bickel-Dumba

Goaltenders
Darcy Kuemper
Ilya Bryzgalov

Mike Yeo added that the lineup is subject to change due to injuries, but this should be pretty close to the roster. Darcy Kuemper is expected to play the full 60 minutes.

No major surprises in the lineup for Monday. Jordan Schroeder is getting a look on the third line, likely to see how he’s able to react to playing on a line that’s going to get heavy defensive deployments. That was my take on Michael Keranen being placed on a fourth line featuring Kyle Brodziak and Joel Rechlicz on Saturday. (Here’s the recap of Saturday’s game against the Jets in St. Paul.) I’d say that the forwards that are on the cusp who are probably getting sent to Iowa are getting a look in the kind of position they’ll actually be placed in if they get a call-up.

Speaking of Keranen, he had a pretty good game on Saturday playing on the fourth line and the second power play unit. Yeo said he wasn’t thrilled with Keranen’s first two periods, but that he looked really good in the third. Yeo wanted to see a full 60 from Keranen. That’s he’s getting another play here makes me think that, while he may be bound for Iowa, he’s near the top of the call-up list.

However, Russo reports that Keranen is likely to be the one player scratched from this forward roster from Monday. Though he notes that Keranen will likely suit up Thursday in St. Louis.

Similarly, Matt Dumba had a great game Saturday and saw some time on the second power play unit — which was really clicking — and is getting a different situation on Monday when he’ll be paired with Stu Bickel. I think this is a little like the situation with Keranen and Schroeder where Dumba’s being tested. How’s he going to play when the lineup demands that he play in a situation that isn’t his wheelhouse? That’s how Erik Haula found a permanent home in the lineup last year. Dubma’s versatility will be tested in a pairing that most would say isn’t ideal. While I think Yeo likes Bickel, I do think that this is at least partially a test for Dumba after getting a much more offensive play on Saturday.

The team has also been giving Bickel a look all over the place and this will be management’s first look at Bickel on the left side.

This game will also be the St. Paul debut for Thomas Vanek in a Wild jersey.

Needless to say there are a handful of forwards in the lineup who may be seeing their final preseason action, making this an important game for guys like Cody Almond, Zack Phillips, and Schroeder.

Non-Roster News

Worth noting that Jason Zucker, who is expected but not guaranteed to make the opening night roster, practiced with the group that is likely bound for Iowa today. Yeo told him not to read into that, according to Michael Russo.

Russo also had an interesting tidbit in a blog post today:

"We talked to coach Mike Yeo today a lot about Keranen and how he keeps getting better in camp, and Yeo volunteered that in the meeting he just emerged from, the brass and coaches were commenting that they weren’t having enough of these “debates,” that not enough bubble players have put themselves on the map to make the team, that it was the veterans who were unusually leading the way and showing the most urgency in camp.Yeo wasn’t talking about guys like Folin and Dumba. He was talking about the bubble guys, some of whom we have only seen play one game (maybe Justin Falk, maybe Brett Bulmer)."

It’s an interesting observation. Keranen has stood out, but there are a lot of players we have discussed as being on the bubble who have hardly been remarked on this preseason. Almond hasn’t been particularly noteworthy. Brett Sutter had a couple of good moments in the first Pittsburgh game, but hasn’t played in a way that demands to be in the lineup. Justin Falk has been MIA. Brett Bulmer, Phillips, Rechlicz, and Jonathon Blum (who should be above most of these guys) haven’t really had stand out moments in what I’ve seen and haven’t garnered much ink from other writers or much talk from Mike Yeo.

The Pens

The Penguins have also announced their lineup for tomorrow and will be fielding a much stronger team than they did in their first preseason bout with the Wild. The notable change for the Pens is that we’ll be seeing the preseason debut of Sidney Crosby.

The Pens will have a solid roster that includes guys like Chris Kunitz, Paul Martin, Christian Ehrhoff, and Kris Letang.

While it’ll be tempting to try and soak up the first Wild preseason game that will feature two rosters that are pretty close to actual NHL rosters, keep an eye on Kasperi Kapanen. He’s a young player who is fighting for a spot on the Pittsburgh roster and has impressed Penguins brass so far. He’ll be an interesting player to watch and could be a big impact player down the road.

Here’s the full Pens roster for Monday’s game in St. Paul.

Forwards
Pascal Dupuis
Daniel Carcillo
Chris Kunitz
Sidney Crosby
Blake Comeau
Steve Downie
Andrew Ebbett
Craig Adams
Zach Sill
Kasperi Kapanen
Oskar Sundqvist
Patric Hornqvist

Defensemen
Scott Harrington
Paul Martin
Brian Dumoulin
Christian Ehrhoff
Phillip Samuelsson
Kris Letang

Goaltenders
1 Thomas Greiss G
37 Jeff Zatkoff G

Update: 9/29/14
Keranen will be the scratch and will play Thursday in St. Louis.