I recall Soby playing a lot with a younger Tarasenko. I don't see anything wrong with it. Still infinitely better than playing with Lehtera. More like Lehturtle amirite?
For me, my issue is that Tarasenko is the only shot on that line. Its more Stastny with tarasenko I don't like, and Sobotka only exacerbates that by being more of the same. When it was Schwartz, Sobotka and Tarasenko, Schwartz was a 2nd shot on the line. Sobotka's shot is weak, and Stastny doesn't exactly have a great shot. You are putting 2 playmakers who won't draw coverage with a guy who by and large mostly creates his own shot, as well as open shots for others by pulling coverage. Neither player can really capitalize on those opportunities, and Tarasenko doesn't really need them to get good shots off.
The proof is that Stastny and Tarasenko have terrible chemistry together. Tarasenko's GF60 #s drop precipitously when paired with Stastny. Stastny is the only player in the world whose GF60 #s drop with Tarasenko. For whatever reason, they have never produced well together, despite being put together several times. Now, you are taking Schwartz out, and putting Sobotka on, who is a lesser Stastny offensively. Then on the 2nd line, you are asking Jaskin to play a very particular game, namely, go to the net and create havoc, but you are pairing him with someone who is at his best when doing the exact same. Schwartz doesn't shoot the puck enough or break down coverage with his skating well enough to generate enough shots for both of them to clean up rebounds. So in short, our lines are a bit redundant.
Using the existing top 6 in the practice lines, I'd much rather run:
Sobotka - Schenn - Tarasenko - Gives another trigger man to draw coverage away from Tarasenko and a big body to create screens/clean up rebounds
Schwartz - Stastny - Jaskin - Stastny had chemistry with Jaskin in Jaskin's only productive season. Let's hope we can find that again. Schwartz is there to provide a shot.
When Steen comes back, sub him for Sobotka and swap places with Schwartz.
way too many ppl freaking out over nonsense.
"oh the lines look poor"
"oh allen was awful this preseason"
on and on it goes. the season starts TOMORROW. None of that matters and tomorrow we get to start the season off. Complain after that game, no reason to do so now. We have atleast 82 games to moan and complain about so why bother doing it before the puck has even dropped. If this team showed you anything last season down the stretch is that we can play with a "subpar" top 9 and still beat the crap out of teams.
Its the pre-season. We come here to play amateur coaches/GMs. What else are we going to discuss? Should we focus on the more important issues like color of the lettering on the jerseys? I mean that will obviously have more of an effect on how our season goes than how well our players played 3 days before opening night....obviously.