Line Combos: 1st vs. 2nd line - time to split up Ehlers - Little - Laine? Mod Warning Post #552

[Duke749]

Lines >>> blender = Profit?

 

[Halberdier]

Lines >>> blender = Profit?

Never. PoMo Total Blender TM we saw last season doesn't tell us he is one of the most experienced coaches in the NHL. Often way too much and way too late.

But maybe he should try the obvious little changes at some point and not just stick to something that is not working?

 

[Mbraunm]

Never. PoMo Total Blender TM we saw last season doesn't tell us he is one of the most experienced coaches in the NHL. Often way too much and way too late.

But maybe he should try the obvious little changes at some point and not just stick to something that is not working?

Agreed-I often feel amazed and in utter disbelief to his utter lack of adjustment capabilities-especially in remarkably obvious situations within games.

 

[kelsier]

When Maurice, when? One win in five games now.

I predicted difficulties with the current line up against better teams and that's what we saw last night and even more so against the Hawks.

As for the ELL, it was the same old, but Laine seemed to a lot stronger and faster than usual. He got to play nearly 17 minutes so that was at least a good sign. Despite for the unnecessary penalty with the few minutes remaining, he had an ok game. One thing I don't get it when the team needs to score two goals in one minute - a near impossible task - why does Pmo use Little (who hasn't himself exactly lit the world on fire) and not Laine, who can actually score out of nowhere? Was he being punished for the penalty? If that's what it was then what a "great" call by the coach. Except, since this isn't the first time I doubt it was about the penalty.

 

[ATLbound]

When Maurice, when? One win in five games now.

I predicted difficulties with the current line up against better teams and that's what we saw last night and even more so against the Hawks.

As for the ELL, it was the same old, but Laine seemed to a lot stronger and faster than usual. He got to play nearly 17 minutes so that was at least a good sign. Despite for the unnecessary penalty with the few minutes remaining, he had an ok game. One thing I don't get it when the team needs to score two goals in one minute - a near impossible task - why does Pmo use Little (who hasn't himself exactly lit the world on fire) and not Laine, who can actually score out of nowhere? Was he being punished for the penalty? If that's what it was then what a "great" call by the coach. Except, since this isn't the first time I doubt it was about the penalty.

Exactly what you said yourself. A stupid, careless penalty. I think anyone would have been benched for that. Little was also great last night and had like 6-7 shots. Rather him
Out there then someone who had an awful game and no chances. Not talking about Laine by the way, he had a solid game other then a dumb costly penalty

 

[robertocarlos]

One of those three players has to play on the third line.

 

[Psych0dad]

Exactly what you said yourself. A stupid, careless penalty. I think anyone would have been benched for that. Little was also great last night and had like 6-7 shots. Rather him
Out there then someone who had an awful game and no chances. Not talking about Laine by the way, he had a solid game other then a dumb costly penalty

Agreed that it was a stupid penalty to take.

But when you are 2-0 down going to last minute, you need to put your best shot out there no matter what. You can tell the player off after the game but don't hinder your chances of getting back to the game by "teaching a lesson" in the wrong place and time.

Laine deserves some scolding for the penalty. Maurice deserves some because he made a bad coaching choice.

 

[Zhamnov5GoalGame]

Agreed that it was a stupid penalty to take.

But when you are 2-0 down going to last minute, you need to put your best shot out there no matter what. You can tell the player off after the game but don't hinder your chances of getting back to the game by "teaching a lesson" in the wrong place and time.

Laine deserves some scolding for the penalty. Maurice deserves some because he made a bad coaching choice.

Was Laine not in the penalty box still at the end of the game. I can't recall. There was only about 2:30 left when he took the penalty (I thought)?

 

[Ducky10]

Agreed that it was a stupid penalty to take.

But when you are 2-0 down going to last minute, you need to put your best shot out there no matter what. You can tell the player off after the game but don't hinder your chances of getting back to the game by "teaching a lesson" in the wrong place and time.

Laine deserves some scolding for the penalty. Maurice deserves some because he made a bad coaching choice.

What bad coaching choice was that? Putting Laine out in last 2:30 of the game?

 

[Halberdier]

Yeah, no doubt Laine was careless with his stick and got that penalty, in a situation that would have been a powerplay for the Jets, so worst possible moment. Was it the 4th offensive zone penalty for the Jets in that game alone? Those should be always avoidable.

Little did skate in front of Blues goalie in a scoring situation by Laine, Copp tripped his guy with his right leg and unless I remenber wrong there was a yet another o-zone penalty for the Jets by someone and also that one by Laine. These will always kill the momentum and eventually they will result goals against.

The game begins at 1 AM local time, Jets are currently losing more than winning, it's a game two of a back-to-back with a team that has exhausted the 1st line stars and finally, I don't expect PoMo to even try the obvious line changes even though he is an all-time record breaking coach. No, I'm not going to watch the game live.

 

[Robinson2187]

Was Laine not in the penalty box still at the end of the game. I can't recall. There was only about 2:30 left when he took the penalty (I thought)?

Yes he wasn't even available. Don't know what those guys are on about.

 

[Halberdier]

Was Laine not in the penalty box still at the end of the game. I can't recall. There was only about 2:30 left when he took the penalty (I thought)?

Since he got 2+2, I guess he was still on penalty box, since the goal ended only the first penalty.

 

[kelsier]

Agreed that it was a stupid penalty to take.

But when you are 2-0 down going to last minute, you need to put your best shot out there no matter what. You can tell the player off after the game but don't hinder your chances of getting back to the game by "teaching a lesson" in the wrong place and time.

Laine deserves some scolding for the penalty. Maurice deserves some because he made a bad coaching choice.

This exactly. As long as your best goal scorer isn't having a nightmare of a game and doing everything wrong, you just can't leave him out no matter what, if you really want to get even. That was absolutely not the case and it was one more bad call from the coach. Just blows my mind trying to find any rationality. Then again, not the first time and nothing new there.
*<= Thought he was available but if not then that's another story

Not planning to stay awake either. Have fun to whoever is going to see the game/watching it live.

 

[Halberdier]

Since he got 2+2, I guess he was still on penalty box, since the goal ended only the first penalty.

Actually, his second penalty just like that of that Blues player was over for the last <30 seconds(?) of course, but if there were no breaks on the game, he did need to stay on the box as Jets could not play with 7 against 6+1 Blues at the end...

Ps. @kelsier I think you need to check these two posts of mine before frying PoMo too much about who was on ice on the end. Or at least who (Laine) was not. (Little is also maybe the best taking those faceoffs, so he definitely should be on ice taking those and maybe then go to the bench when there are better guys)

 

[JetsFan815]

If Laine plays the way he did tonight everynight then people on this board would be begging Maurice to put players on Laine's line to get them going instead of the other way around.

Edit: Laine also had the 2nd highest icetime of any Jet forward at 5 on 5 tonight, only 11 seconds less than Scheifele. Almost as if when he's playing well the coach is more than happy to give him icetime and there is no conspiracy going on.

 

[Farmboy Patty]

Wow. Laine looked determined to score game. He looked more like the pre concussion Laine that we have sorely missed. PoMo rewarded his work with plenty of icetime and the formula for Laine to have success/play big minutes seems fairly simple now: skate hard, be physical and do your Laine thing. In most games this season he has only done one or two out those, and while that has been enough tobsty on the top of PP scoring, his overall game has been meh and he’s gotten the icetime that he has deserved and what has been good for the team.

If Patrik keeps this up the team will have 2 first lines and be a nightmare for opposing coaches.

 

[Maukkis]

Yeah, the increase in effort seems to correlate with better results. Who would have thought?

The only thing Laine can do is to continue putting in a shift night in, night out. That is both the norm and the reality of this league; no freebies are up for grabs. Supplanting Wheeler is possible, but the requirements are bloody high, especially when Wheeler (and the whole first line, too) is playing very well himself.

 

[ps241]

Wow was Pate good tonight.......he was dominant. Might be my favorite game for him as a Jet. Little was really good defensively but make no mistake Laine carried the line tonight.

Of coase Laine can and will light it up with Scheifele soon but the next level is when Laine plays consistently like he did last night away from Mark because that is when we become a championship level team.

 

[KingBogo]

Wow. Laine looked determined to score game. He looked more like the pre concussion Laine that we have sorely missed. PoMo rewarded his work with plenty of icetime and the formula for Laine to have success/play big minutes seems fairly simple now: skate hard, be physical and do your Laine thing. In most games this season he has only done one or two out those, and while that has been enough tobsty on the top of PP scoring, his overall game has been meh and he’s gotten the icetime that he has deserved and what has been good for the team.

If Patrik keeps this up the team will have 2 first lines and be a nightmare for opposing coaches.

This is it. It is more about creating mismatches throughout the lineup than optimizing one players stats. When the team is on they are very hard to match up against. Especially when you can use CLT to take the odd shift against other teams top lines freeing up CSW or ELL for offensive opportunity. Once Laine gets closer to being able to carry a line we become unstoppable.

 

[grieves]

The point has been to maximize the amount of goals for the team. Never has this been about maximizing one player's stats. It's about potentially improving 4 players stats and significantly increasing the amount of scoring (5v5 scoring in the top-6 has been very dry for a while now). We need to think about what kind of sample sizes we want to use here.

It is nice that ELL is showing promise, but let's not forget what a garbage fest they have been for 40 games. Even in their strong game they clearly had wasted opportunities because Little likes to cycle whereas the youngsters are sometimes waiting for a pass to the slot and then they cycle it to no-one. It's just a chemistry issue. Hopefully they can figure it out. At least individually they are all having good games lately.

 

[Maukkis]

This is it. It is more about creating mismatches throughout the lineup than optimizing one players stats. When the team is on they are very hard to match up against. Especially when you can use CLT to take the odd shift against other teams top lines freeing up CSW or ELL for offensive opportunity. Once Laine gets closer to being able to carry a line we become unstoppable.

This, especially when it is taken into account that CLT often takes way more than an odd shift against the top guns. Scheifele's line is basically bound to draw one of the opposition's top lines, which means that between CSW and CLT, the lion's share of the tough matchups are basically gone. After that, we still have ELL and Perreault's line at our disposal, which the opposition will have trouble with. If Laine plays with Scheifele, we'll give up a considerable benefit of having an elite scorer receiving favourable matchups.

 

[Halberdier]

It is more about creating mismatches throughout the lineup than optimizing one players stats.

The mother (or maybe king) of all strawmen.

See what @grieves has written above and add in Scheifele -line that has not been going for a long time nearly as well they should. PoMo even tried to get CSW going in one game by switching Connor to Connor... sorry, I mean Ehlers to Ehlers... well Connor to Ehlers to make some "difference". Result was just that even though Ehlers was skating a lot in that game, he unfortunately could not fix the D-play by CSW, resulting -2 with S & W and -3 total.

To maximize the One player stats I guess we should play him either as a LW with Scheifele + Wheeler or at least a RW with Perreault + Scheifele. But that would make it harder to have a good spots for Ehlers and Connor and keep ELL balanced.

To maximize GF over GA for the whole team (==winning), PoMo could get Little, Ehlers, Laine and Scheifele (in that order) going by just switching Scheifele and Little. Give Wheeler for Little, as they match together so well. Give them also Connor who is doing great. Give Scheifele to Ehlers and Laine and the other way around.

 

[StatisticsAddict99]

If Laine played like he did tonight all season on a line with Scheifele, he’d have 50 Goals no questions asked... I don’t want to complain about that second line anymore because it has seemed more solid than ever(still is not as strong as it’s parts though) but now it’s that Top line that needs adjusting... Obviously that needs to change, we need scoring on both sides and I’m sure the ESL line wouldn’t hurt as Wheeler could drive Little and Connor/Perreault...

I don’t care how Maurice does it but he needs to make some changes soon if we want to start winning again.

 

[YWGinYYZ]

Roslovic's been playing extremely well with the Moose - one can dream:

Connor - Scheif - Wheels
Ehlers - Roslo - Laine
Perreault - Little - Armia
Copp - Lowry - Tanev

Unlikely to happen this year, but maybe next season? G'luck matching up with that, if Roslo can push for the 2C position.

 

[armyjoe]

This is it. It is more about creating mismatches throughout the lineup than optimizing one players stats.

This. We should make really good lines and not make them just to optimize wheeler's individual production. Make lines with better chemistry even if the captain is against it and maybe we can win a game in the playoffs. Now that we dont have as many injuries as last season and we have a good goalie we have a chance this time.