When I was fairly young, in the Fifties, very few lines got nicknames. Even some very successful lines did not get a moniker.
The most famous old-time lines that had nicknames still talked about in the Fifties were Toronto's Kid Line of the Thirties, featuring Jackson, Primeau and Conacher, Boston's Kraut Line of the Thirties and Forties, that had Dumart, Schmidt and Bauer, Montreal's Punch Line of the Forties, featuring Blake, Lach and Richard, and Chicago's Pony Line of the Forties with Bentley, Bentley and Mosienko. We knew of the New York Rangers' Boucher, Boucher, Cook line, but we never heard it called the Bread Line. We also knew of the Canadiens' Joliat, Morenz, Gagnon line, but we didn't know it as the Speedball Line.
The most famous line of the Fifties that had a nickname that stuck was Detroit's Production Line that had Lindsay, Abel and Howe and, later, after Abel left, other centers. Later on in the Fifties, there were two more very popular line names, Chicago's Pappy Line of Litzenberger, Sloan and Lindsay and Boston's Uke Line of Bucyk, Horvath and Stasiuk.
But some famous lines of the Fifites did not really have nicknames. There were the Olmstead, Beliveau, Geoffrion and the Moore, Richard, Richard lines on the dynasty Canadiens, but we referred to them as simply the Beliveau Line and the Richard Line.
Some of the line names in the Wikipedia list look like they were public relations creations that never took hold, and deservedly so. New York's GAG Line and Buffalo's French Connection Line are two that did take, also deservedly so. But Montreal's Dynasty Line? I'm a Canadiens fan, have been since 1953, and I never heard people calling the Shutt, Lemaire/Mahovlich, Lafleur line that. I did hear it called the Donut Line, but that didn't stick in the way the Kid Line, the Kraut Line, the Pappy Line and so on did.
I wonder what factors determine whether a line gets a nickname and whether that nickname sticks. I suppose it might be the same with player nicknames. I remember reading an article on that more than 50 years ago. It noted that some great players never get nicknames, among them Gordie Howe--Howe did not become Mr. Hockey until his later years and post-retirement and, in any event, Mr. Hockey is certainly not the kind of nickname one would regularly use in conversation in referring to Howe--Jean Beliveau--who was saddled with Le Gross Bill, which no one ever used in conversational reference to him--and Doug Harvey. By contrast, everyone commonly referred to Rocket Richard and Boom Boom Geoffrion, using their nicknames more than their given names. The article concluded that a player had to have a very colorful image that catches the public's imagination to get a nickname that sticks. Perhaps it's the same with lines.
