Eye ball test to me is they have very little. I do not see tic tac, tape to tape passing then a goal between them. Chemistry to me is Bergy and Marshy. Knowing where the guy is and getting open and giving it back, do you see that between them? I think Jake has that more with Coyle.
Jake had a good year last year because they had better RW options then this year. He caught teams as they had no book on him, now they are prepared and nullify his strengths.
Second line has been flat all year, JDB has been checked and Krech is not the same guy he was years ago. He needs more help to drive the line. Jake seems to have one move, try and go wide and take it to the net. Most times it ends up being driven to the corner or behind the net.
The opposite wing is an AHL player and does nothing to help the line. Krech would be better with Palmieri who is an 200 foot player/scorer. Bjork has speed and can protect the puck long enough to feed it to Krech.
They certainly don’t have Marchand/Bergy chemistry, but there’s not many(if any) line mates in the NHL that do. Would have to see more from Coyle & JDB to gauge their chemistry together.
Who was the better RW option they had last year, wasn’t Backes there for most of the year?
I think it’s more of the second part you mentioned. Jake is very one dimensional, he can’t drive a line on a regular basis. He has his streaks but play him physical and take away the outside, he’ll be pretty quite.
They had chemistry last year, many of his goals were him flying into the zone crashing the net and Krejci hitting him for a backdoor tap-in. So I think the chemistry is there they just aren’t performing individually as they were last year.
Give that line a true 2RW and force teams to worry about both wings and not just Jake, you’ll start seeing some things open up and get some of those tic-tac goals you mentioned.