The Minnesota Wild remain the only team in the NHL still running with their starting line combinations as the season approaches the 10-game mark. The other 29 clubs have re-arranged their lines and defense pairings to compensate for injuries, unexpected performances (good and bad), and/or chemistry experiments.
The Arizona Coyotes (5-4-1) for instance have Kyle Chipchura centering the top line with both Antoine Vermette and Martin Hanzal out. A brutal start from the Calgary Flames (2-7-1) forced coach Bob Hartley to break up his excellent top line - searching for secondary scoring - inserting Joe Colborne, just back from injury, and dropping Johnny Gaudreau to a second line centered by Sam Bennett who responded with a goal and an assist and third-star honours in a 5-4 SO loss to Ottawa last night.
There have been a number of surprising auditions in the top six forwards around the league as coaches try to divvy up the scoring talent across the top three units. The examples include: Jiri Sekac (Ana), Jordan Martinook (Ari), Nicolas Deslauriers (Buf), Viktor Tikhonov (Chi), Dennis Everberg (Col), Rob Klinkhammer (Edm), Shane Prince (Ott), Scottie Upshall (StL), Leo Komarov (Tor), and Jake Virtanen (Van) - many of whom were just fighting to get on the opening rosters.
Here is a quick snapshot of how all the NHL teams lined up for their last game......
| LEFT WING | CENTER | RIGHT WING | LEFT DEFENSE | RIGHT DEFENSE | GOAL | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jiri Sekac | Ryan Kesler | Jakob Silfverberg | ANA | Hampus Lindholm | Kevin Bieksa | Frederik Andersen |
| Carl Hagelin | Rickard Rakell | Corey Perry | Clayton Stoner | Sami Vatanen | ||
| Andrew Cogliano | Mike Santorelli | Chris Wagner | Cam Fowler | Korbinian Holzer | ||
| Tim Jackman | Shawn Horcoff | Chris Stewart | Joe Piskula | Simon Despres | Anton Khudobin | |
| LEFT WING | CENTER | RIGHT WING | LEFT DEFENSE | RIGHT DEFENSE | GOAL | |
| Max Domi | Kyle Chipchura | Mikkel Boedker | ARI | Oliver Ekman-Larsson | Michael Stone | Mike Smith |
| Jordan Martinook | Brad Richardson | Shane Doan | Nicklas Grossman | Stefan Elliott | ||
| Tobias Rieder | Tyler Gaudet | Anthony Duclair | Klas Dahlbeck | Zbynek Michalek | ||
| John Scott | Boyd Gordon | Steve Downie | Corey Potter | Connor Murphy | Anders Lindback | |
| LEFT WING | CENTER | RIGHT WING | LEFT DEFENSE | RIGHT DEFENSE | GOAL | |
| Loui Eriksson | David Krejci | David Pastrnak | BOS | Zdeno Chara | Kevan Miller | Tuukka Rask |
| Brad Marchand | Patrice Bergeron | Brett Connolly | Torey Krug | Adam McQuaid | ||
| Matt Beleskey | Ryan Spooner | Jimmy Hayes | Joe Morrow | Colin Miller | ||
| Chris Kelly | Joonas Kemppainen | Tyler Randell | Dennis Seidenberg | Zach Trotman | Jonas Gustavsson | |
| LEFT WING | CENTER | RIGHT WING | LEFT DEFENSE | RIGHT DEFENSE | GOAL | |
| Nicolas Deslauriers | Ryan O'Reilly | Tyler Ennis | BUF | Josh Gorges | Rasmus Ristolainen | Robin Lehner |
| Johan Larsson | Jack Eichel | Sam Reinhart | Jake McCabe | Cody Franson | ||
| Matt Moulson | Zemgus Girgensons | Brian Gionta | Mark Pysyk | Carlo Colaiacovo | ||
| Marcus Foligno | David Legwand | Jamie McGinn | Mike Weber | Zach Bogosian | Chad Johnson | |
| LEFT WING | CENTER | RIGHT WING | LEFT DEFENSE | RIGHT DEFENSE | GOAL | |
| Joe Colborne | Sean Monahan | Jiri Hudler | CGY | Mark Giordano | T.J. Brodie | Jonas Hiller |
| Johnny Gaudreau | Sam Bennett | Michael Frolik | Kris Russell | Dennis Wideman | ||
| Mason Raymond | Mikael Backlund | David Jones | Deryk Engelland | Dougie Hamilton | ||
| Brandon Bollig | Matt Stajan | Josh Jooris | Brett Kulak | Ladislav Smid | Joni Ortio | |
| LEFT WING | CENTER | RIGHT WING | LEFT DEFENSE | RIGHT DEFENSE | GOAL | |
| Victor Rask | Eric Staal | Elias Lindholm | CAR | Ron Hainsey | Justin Faulk | Cam Ward |
| Nathan Gerbe | Jordan Staal | Chris Terry | John-Michael Liles | Brett Pesce | ||
| Jeff Skinner | Riley Nash | Kris Versteeg | Michal Jordan | Ryan Murphy | ||
| Brock McGinn | Jay McClement | Brad Malone | Noah Hanifin | James Wisniewski | Eddie Lack | |
| LEFT WING | CENTER | RIGHT WING | LEFT DEFENSE | RIGHT DEFENSE | GOAL | |
| Viktor Tikhonov | Jonathan Toews | Marian Hossa | CHI | Viktor Svedberg | Brent Seabrook | Corey Crawford |
| Artemi Panarin | Artem Anisimov | Patrick Kane | Niklas Hjalmarsson | Trevor van Riemsdyk | ||
| Andrew Desjardins | Marcus Kruger | Andrew Shaw | Trevor Daley | David Rundblad | ||
| Ryan Garbutt | Tanner Kero | Teuvo Teravainen | Duncan Keith | Michal Rozsival | Scott Darling | |
| LEFT WING | CENTER | RIGHT WING | LEFT DEFENSE | RIGHT DEFENSE | GOAL | |
| Dennis Everberg | Matt Duchene | Jarome Iginla | COL | Francois Beauchemin | Erik Johnson | Semyon Varlamov |
| Alex Tanguay | Carl Soderberg | Blake Comeau | Nick Holden | Tyson Barrie | ||
| Gabriel Landeskog | Nathan MacKinnon | Jack Skille | Nikita Zadorov | Nate Guenin | ||
| Mikhail Grigorenko | John Mitchell | Cody McLeod | Brad Stuart | Brandon Gormley | Reto Berra | |
| LEFT WING | CENTER | RIGHT WING | LEFT DEFENSE | RIGHT DEFENSE | GOAL | |
| Brandon Saad | Brandon Dubinsky | Nick Foligno | CBJ | David Savard | Jack Johnson | Sergei Bobrovsky |
| Scott Hartnell | Alexander Wennberg | Cam Atkinson | Ryan Murray | Cody Goloubef | ||
| Matt Calvert | William Karlsson | Boone Jenner | Fedor Tyutin | Dalton Prout | ||
| Rene Bourque | Gregory Campbell | David Clarkson | Justin Falk | Kevin Connauton | Curtis McElhinney | |
| LEFT WING | CENTER | RIGHT WING | LEFT DEFENSE | RIGHT DEFENSE | GOAL | |
| Jamie Benn | Tyler Seguin | Patrick Sharp | DAL | Alex Goligoski | John Klingberg | Kari Lehtonen |
| Antoine Roussel | Cody Eakin | Ales Hemsky | Johnny Oduya | Jordie Benn | ||
| Mattias Janmark | Jason Spezza | Valeri Nichushkin | Jyrki Jokipakka | Jamie Oleksiak | ||
| Vernon Fiddler | Radek Faksa | Colton Sceviour | Patrik Nemeth | Jason Demers | Antti Niemi | |
| LEFT WING | CENTER | RIGHT WING | LEFT DEFENSE | RIGHT DEFENSE | GOAL | |
| Justin Abdelkader | Henrik Zetterberg | Gustav Nyquist | DET | Niklas Kronwall | Jonathan Ericsson | Jim Howard |
| Tomas Tatar | Dylan Larkin | Teemu Pulkkinen | Brendan Smith | Jakub Kindl | ||
| Darren Helm | Riley Sheahan | Tomas Jurco | Dan DeKeyser | Alexey Marchenko | ||
| Drew Miller | Joakim Andersson | Luke Glendening | Kyle Quincey | Mike Green | Petr Mrazek | |
| LEFT WING | CENTER | RIGHT WING | LEFT DEFENSE | RIGHT DEFENSE | GOAL | |
| Taylor Hall | Ryan Nugent-Hopkins | Rob Klinkhammer | EDM | Andrej Sekera | Mark Fayne | Cam Talbot |
| Benoit Pouliot | Connor McDavid | Nail Yakupov | Brandon Davidson | Eric Gryba | ||
| Lauri Korpikoski | Anton Lander | Teddy Purcell | Oscar Klefbom | Darnell Nurse | ||
| Iiro Pakarinen | Mark Letestu | Anton Slepyshev | Andrew Ference | Justin Schultz | Anders Nilsson | |
| LEFT WING | CENTER | RIGHT WING | LEFT DEFENSE | RIGHT DEFENSE | GOAL | |
| Jonathan Huberdeau | Nick Bjugstad | Jaromir Jagr | FLA | Brian Campbell | Aaron Ekblad | Roberto Luongo |
| Jussi Jokinen | David Bolland | Reilly Smith | Willie Mitchell | Erik Gudbranson | ||
| Quinton Howden | Brandon Pirri | Vincent Trocheck | Dmitri Kulikov | Alex Petrovic | ||
| Connor Brickley | Derek MacKenzie | Shawn Thornton | Dylan Olsen | Steven Kampfer | Al Montoya | |
| LEFT WING | CENTER | RIGHT WING | LEFT DEFENSE | RIGHT DEFENSE | GOAL | |
| Tanner Pearson | Anze Kopitar | Dustin Brown | LA | Brayden McNabb | Drew Doughty | Jon Quick |
| Milan Lucic | Jeff Carter | Tyler Toffoli | Jake Muzzin | Alec Martinez | ||
| Trevor Lewis | Nick Shore | Marian Gaborik | Jamie McBain | Christian Ehrhoff | ||
| Kyle Clifford | Andy Andreoff | Jordan Nolan | Derek Forbort | Matt Greene | Jhonas Enroth | |
| LEFT WING | CENTER | RIGHT WING | LEFT DEFENSE | RIGHT DEFENSE | GOAL | |
| Zach Parise | Mikael Granlund | Jason Pominville | MIN | Ryan Suter | Jared Spurgeon | Devan Dubnyk |
| Jason Zucker | Mikko Koivu | Nino Niederreiter | Jonas Brodin | Mathew Dumba | ||
| Thomas Vanek | Charlie Coyle | Justin Fontaine | Marco Scandella | Nate Prosser | ||
| Chris Porter | Erik Haula | Ryan Carter | Mike Reilly | Christian Folin | Niklas Backstrom | |
| LEFT WING | CENTER | RIGHT WING | LEFT DEFENSE | RIGHT DEFENSE | GOAL | |
| Max Pacioretty | Tomas Plekanec | Brendan Gallagher | MTL | Andrei Markov | P.K. Subban | Carey Price |
| Lars Eller | Alex Galchenyuk | Alexander Semin | Alexei Emelin | Jeff Petry | ||
| Tomas Fleischmann | David Desharnais | Dale Weise | Nathan Beaulieu | Tom Gilbert | ||
| Brian Flynn | Torrey Mitchell | Devante Smith-Pelly | Jarred Tinordi | Greg Pateryn | Mike Condon | |
| LEFT WING | CENTER | RIGHT WING | LEFT DEFENSE | RIGHT DEFENSE | GOAL | |
| Filip Forsberg | Mike Fisher | James Neal | NSH | Roman Josi | Shea Weber | Pekka Rinne |
| Colin Wilson | Mike Ribeiro | Craig Smith | Barret Jackman | Seth Jones | ||
| Gabriel Bourque | Cody Hodgson | Calle Jarnkrok | Mattias Ekholm | Ryan Ellis | ||
| Eric Nystrom | Paul Gaustad | Austin Watson | Anthony Bitetto | Victor Bartley | Carter Hutton | |
| LEFT WING | CENTER | RIGHT WING | LEFT DEFENSE | RIGHT DEFENSE | GOAL | |
| Mike Cammalleri | Adam Henrique | Lee Stempniak | NJ | Andy Greene | Adam Larsson | Cory Schneider |
| Jiri Tlusty | Travis Zajac | Kyle Palmieri | John Moore | Damon Severson | ||
| Brian O'Neill | Jacob Josefson | Jordin Tootoo | David Schlemko | Eric Gelinas | ||
| Stefan Matteau | Stephen Gionta | Sergey Kalinin | Jon Merrill | Seth Helgeson | Keith Kinkaid | |
| LEFT WING | CENTER | RIGHT WING | LEFT DEFENSE | RIGHT DEFENSE | GOAL | |
| Josh Bailey | John Tavares | Ryan Strome | NYI | Nick Leddy | Johnny Boychuk | Jaroslav Halak |
| Nikolai Kulemin | Frans Nielsen | Kyle Okposo | Calvin de Haan | Travis Hamonic | ||
| Anders Lee | Mikhail Grabovski | Brock Nelson | Brian Strait | Marek Zidlicky | ||
| Matt Martin | Casey Cizikas | Cal Clutterbuck | Thomas Hickey | Ryan Pulock | Thomas Greiss | |
| LEFT WING | CENTER | RIGHT WING | LEFT DEFENSE | RIGHT DEFENSE | GOAL | |
| Rick Nash | Derick Brassard | Mats Zuccarello | NYR | Ryan McDonagh | Kevin Klein | Henrik Lundqvist |
| Chris Kreider | Derek Stepan | J.T. Miller | Keith Yandle | Daniel Girardi | ||
| Jarret Stoll | Oscar Lindberg | Kevin Hayes | Marc Staal | Dan Boyle | ||
| Emerson Etem | Dominic Moore | Jesper Fast | Chris Summers | Dylan McIlrath | Antti Raanta | |
| LEFT WING | CENTER | RIGHT WING | LEFT DEFENSE | RIGHT DEFENSE | GOAL | |
| Shane Prince | Kyle Turris | Mark Stone | OTT | Marc Methot | Erik Karlsson | Craig Anderson |
| Matt Puempel | Mika Zibanejad | Bobby Ryan | Patrick Wiercioch | Cody Ceci | ||
| Milan Michalek | Jean-Gabriel Pageau | Alex Chiasson | Mark Borowiecki | Jared Cowen | ||
| Max McCormick | Zack Smith | Chris Neil | Mark Fraser | Chris Wideman | Matt O'Connor | |
| LEFT WING | CENTER | RIGHT WING | LEFT DEFENSE | RIGHT DEFENSE | GOAL | |
| Michael Raffl | Claude Giroux | Jakub Voracek | PHI | Nick Schultz | Mark Streit | Steve Mason |
| Matt Read | Sam Gagner | Wayne Simmonds | Michael Del Zotto | Radko Gudas | ||
| Brayden Schenn | Scott Laughton | R.J. Umberger | Evgeni Medvedev | Luke Schenn | ||
| Chris VandeVelde | Pierre-Edouard Bellemare | Ryan White | Andrew MacDonald | Brandon Manning | Michal Neuvirth | |
| LEFT WING | CENTER | RIGHT WING | LEFT DEFENSE | RIGHT DEFENSE | GOAL | |
| Pascal Dupuis | Sidney Crosby | Patric Hornqvist | PIT | Rob Scuderi | Olli Maatta | Marc-Andre Fleury |
| David Perron | Evgeni Malkin | Phil Kessel | Ian Cole | Kristopher Letang | ||
| Chris Kunitz | Nick Bonino | Daniel Sprong | Brian Dumoulin | Ben Lovejoy | ||
| Kevin Porter | Matt Cullen | Beau Bennett | Tim Erixon | Adam Clendening | Jeff Zatkoff | |
| LEFT WING | CENTER | RIGHT WING | LEFT DEFENSE | RIGHT DEFENSE | GOAL | |
| Alexander Steen | Jori Lehtera | Vladimir Tarasenko | STL | Jay Bouwmeester | Alex Pietrangelo | Brian Elliott |
| Dmitrij Jaskin | David Backes | Scottie Upshall | Carl Gunnarsson | Colton Parayko | ||
| Robby Fabbri | Scott Gomez | Troy Brouwer | Joel Edmundson | Robert Bortuzzo | ||
| Steve Ott | Kyle Brodziak | Ryan Reaves | Chris Butler | Kevin Shattenkirk | Jake Allen | |
| LEFT WING | CENTER | RIGHT WING | LEFT DEFENSE | RIGHT DEFENSE | GOAL | |
| Joonas Donskoi | Joe Pavelski | Joe Thornton | SJ | Paul Martin | Brent Burns | Martin Jones |
| Patrick Marleau | Tomas Hertl | Joel Ward | Marc-Edouard Vlasic | Justin Braun | ||
| Matt Nieto | Chris Tierney | Tom Wingels | Brenden Dillon | Matt Tennyson | ||
| Barclay Goodrow | Ben Smith | Mike Brown | Mirco Mueller | Dylan DeMelo | Alex Stalock | |
| LEFT WING | CENTER | RIGHT WING | LEFT DEFENSE | RIGHT DEFENSE | GOAL | |
| Ondrej Palat | Tyler Johnson | Nikita Kucherov | TB | Victor Hedman | Anton Stralman | Ben Bishop |
| Jonathan Drouin | Steven Stamkos | Ryan Callahan | Jason Garrison | Matt Carle | ||
| Alex Killorn | Valtteri Filppula | Vladislav Namestnikov | Andrej Sustr | Braydon Coburn | ||
| Erik Condra | Brian Boyle | J.T. Brown | Luke Witkowski | Nikita Nesterov | Kevin Poulin | |
| LEFT WING | CENTER | RIGHT WING | LEFT DEFENSE | RIGHT DEFENSE | GOAL | |
| James van Riemsdyk | Nazem Kadri | Leo Komarov | TOR | Matt Hunwick | Dion Phaneuf | Jonathan Bernier |
| Michael Grabner | Peter Holland | Pierre Parenteau | Morgan Rielly | Scott Harrington | ||
| Daniel Winnik | Byron Froese | Joffrey Lupul | Martin Marincin | Roman Polak | ||
| Brad Boyes | Mark Arcobello | Shawn Matthias | Jake Gardiner | Stephane Robidas | James Reimer | |
| LEFT WING | CENTER | RIGHT WING | LEFT DEFENSE | RIGHT DEFENSE | GOAL | |
| Daniel Sedin | Henrik Sedin | Radim Vrbata | VAN | Alexander Edler | Chris Tanev | Ryan Miller |
| Alexandre Burrows | Brandon Sutter | Jake Virtanen | Ben Hutton | Yannick Weber | ||
| Sven Baertschi | Bo Horvat | Jannik Hansen | Luca Sbisa | Matt Bartkowski | ||
| Brandon Prust | Jared McCann | Derek Dorsett | Dan Hamhuis | Alex Biega | Jacob Markstrom | |
| LEFT WING | CENTER | RIGHT WING | LEFT DEFENSE | RIGHT DEFENSE | GOAL | |
| Alexander Ovechkin | Evgeny Kuznetsov | T.J. Oshie | WSH | Brooks Orpik | John Carlson | Braden Holtby |
| Marcus Johansson | Nicklas Backstrom | Justin Williams | Karl Alzner | Matt Niskanen | ||
| Jason Chimera | Jay Beagle | Tom Wilson | Taylor Chorney | Dmitry Orlov | ||
| Brooks Laich | Chandler Stephenson | Andre Burakovsky | Nate Schmidt | Ryan Stanton | Philipp Grubauer | |
| LEFT WING | CENTER | RIGHT WING | LEFT DEFENSE | RIGHT DEFENSE | GOAL | |
| Andrew Ladd | Bryan Little | Blake Wheeler | WPG | Tobias Enstrom | Dustin Byfuglien | Ondrej Pavelec |
| Alexander Burmistrov | Adam Lowry | Drew Stafford | Ben Chiarot | Tyler Myers | ||
| Mathieu Perreault | Mark Scheifele | Nikolaj Ehlers | Mark Stuart | Jacob Trouba | ||
| Chris Thorburn | Andrew Copp | Anthony Peluso | Jay Harrison | Paul Postma | Michael Hutchinson |