In the first game of their respective seasons, new bench bosses Joel Quenneville and Lane Lambert will face one another.

The Ducks are looking to get off on the right foot in Game 1 of the Quenneville era, with offseason additions Chris Kreider, Mikael Granlund and Ryan Poehling making their team debuts. 19-year-old Beckett Sennecke is expected to make his NHL debut.

“Excited,” Sennecke said. “That’s basically one word to kind of sum it up. I’m excited to get out there and play.”

“(Making your NHL debut is) a hard thing to put into words,” Kreider said. “You work your whole life towards a moment like that, so I just try to soak it in and enjoy every second.”

“I thought he had progressed really well in camp,” Quenneville said. “It seemed like every day, he got a little bit more confident with the puck. 
It seemed like he was stronger, using a little bit more of his size and his strength. And I thought he had a really good camp.

“I think a couple of days ago, he might have been playing on a different line. 
Now he's playing on the line where it looks like, offensively, it’s got a lot of strengths to it. I was telling him today, ‘The better your check, the better it's gonna be offensively.’ So I think that coming in here, he's a confident kid, in a good way, and I'm sure he's excited about getting started like we are.”

Forward Ryan Strome is out with an upper-body injury and will miss the first two games of the season. In his absence, Granlund will slide down from second line wing to center the third line. Sennecke will be elevated from the fourth line and take Granlund’s previous spot, while Sam Colangelo will draw in on the fourth line.

“We put Granny back in the middle, and that kind of filled that spot,” Quenneville said. “And I think the centermen basically are going to be in the same holes with Granlund being in the middle.”

Though he’s coached several practices and seven preseason games, this will be the first regular season game coached for Quenneville in almost four years after he was suspended—and then reinstated for his role in the Chicago Blackhawks sexual assault scandal.

“I always find the first game of the regular season and the first playoff game, I get a little bit excited,” Quenneville said. “And I can feel it already today. It's the butterflies, first day of school, first day of a meaningful game. It's great to be back and great to get started.”

Ducks Projected Lines

Chris Kreider - Leo Carlsson - Troy Terry
Cutter Gauthier - Mason McTavish - Beckett Sennecke
Frank Vatrano - Mikael Granlund - Alex Killorn
Ross Johnston - Ryan Poehling - Sam Colangelo

Jackson LaCombe - Radko Gudas
Olen Zellweger - Jacob Trouba
Pavel Mintyukov - Drew Helleson

Lukáš Dostál (confirmed)

Kraken Projected Lines

Jared McCann - Matty Beniers - Jordan Eberle
Jaden Schwartz - Shane Wright - Eeli Tolvanen
Mason Marchment - Chandler Stephenson - Ryan Winterton
Tye Kartye - Frédérick Gaudreau - Jani Nyman

Vince Dunn - Adam Larsson
Ryan Lindgren - Brandon Montour
Josh Mahura - Jamie Oleksiak

Joey Daccord (confirmed)