Watching the compilation of Kessel goals, I count 16 that came from great passes where Phil found open ice for himself. The rest were walking off the half boards or came on the rush. That is a significant number. He always tries to score on the rush because he HAS to because Bozak and MacArthur aren't good at finding him or getting his passes. That's pretty obvious after the first 5 games.
2nd quote: EXACTLY, this creates room for Kessel on the half boards. He's also good at cycling the puck. Bozak is only good for taking faceoffs and being semi-good defensively.
Who is going to be directing the play? Grabs tends to work best on the counter-offense. That doesn't necessarily exclude Kessel - thanks to his speed - but he seems to prefer directing the play.
Besides, Bozak on the second line probably wouldn't work. He wouldn't be a great puck distributor on a shutdown line. Kulemin, in addition, works with speed, can work on counter-attack, and have demonstrated great chemistry with Grabs in the past. Kadri could work, but he doesn't have a strong two-way presence yet. I just don't see him being part of a shut down line.
Your Top-9 line up would resemble this:
JVR - Grabs - Kessel
McClement - Kadri - Kulemin
Frattin - Bozak - Kamorov
I don't see how that works. Hockey is a 60 minute game. One can argue that talent is limited, but it still has to be distributed in a way that allow consistency for 60 minutes. Bozak must be used effectively, because last year, his line-mate produced 1PPG due to his solid two-way play.
OTOH, one that resembles this would be much more balanced for a 60 minute game:
JVR - Bozak - Kessel ( 2 out of the 3 players worked well last season)
McClement - Grabs - Kulemin ( Previous chemistry, McClement, due to his strong PK abilities, would prevent exhaustion when against elite lines).
Frattin - Kadri - Kamorov ( Sheltered minutes. It's rookie line after all.)
love the names.
