The Rangers and Flames got their game-day picture on Wednesday, November 11, with projected lineups that pointed to Brennan Othmann returning after a six-game absence and Glenn Gawdin making his season debut. The lineup sheet also kept Sean Durzi on injured reserve and left Jonathan Huberdeau’s status unresolved.
NHL.com listed Gabe Perreault, Mika Zibanejad and Alexis Lafreniere on the Rangers’ top line, a sign that the forward groups were set with the game at 6:30pm ABT in mind. For readers tracking Rangers vs Flames, this was the day the roster questions mattered most: who was in, who was out and who was only close.
Gawdin’s spot carried its own weight. Recalled from Hartford of the American Hockey League, he was expected to center the Rangers’ fourth line, which is how his season debut was projected to arrive. Othmann’s return mattered for a different reason. He had missed six games after an upper-body injury suffered in a 4-0 loss at the Edmonton Oilers on Oct. 28, and his place back in the lineup gave the Rangers a healthy-looking forward picture for the first time in nearly two weeks.
The same was not true everywhere. Durzi remained on injured reserve after being placed there on Monday, even though he took part in the morning skate in a noncontact jersey and is listed as week to week. That leaves the injury list doing as much work as the lineup itself, with availability still shaping how both sides can deploy their skaters.
Huberdeau was the clearest example of that uncertainty. He skated again in a regular jersey with the Flames, but Ryan Huska said there is still no timeline for the forward’s return, which keeps his status open even as the rest of the lineup firms up. Samuel Honzek was also activated from injured reserve and assigned to Calgary of the American Hockey League, another move that changed the picture without fully settling it.
That is what makes a projected lineup report useful on a game day like this: it does not just show who might start, it shows where the uncertainty still sits. By puck drop, the available bodies will matter more than the order on the sheet, and Huberdeau’s next appearance remains the biggest unanswered part of the night.
