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Lines at practice today:
Lupul - Kadri - Kessel
JvR - Bozak - Clarkson
Komarov - Santorelli - Winnik
Pannik - Holland - Frattin
Edit: Feel free to move thread to Pre-Game Talk if needed.
I kind of rate our players like this:
Kessel -
Great goal scorer.
Horrible forecheck and cycle game.
JVR -
Good/Great goal scorer.
Average/Good forecheck and cycle game.
Bozak -
Average goal scorer.
Average forecheck and cycle game.
Kadri -
Good goal scorer.
Poor forecheck and cycle game.
Lupul -
Good goal scorer.
Poor forecheck and cycle game.
Clarkson -
Average goal scorer.
Good forecheck and cycle game.
Winnik -
Poor goal scorer.
Good forecheck and cycle game.
Komorov -
Poor goal scorer.
Good forecheck and cycle game.
Santorelli -
Poor/Average goal scorer.
Average/Good forecheck and cycle game.
I think that one aspect of the cycle and forechecking game is that you need all three of the players to be good at it. If there's one weak link, that style of game doesn't really work. Our old first line with Kessel on it was unable to play that style of game. Our old second line wasn't great at it either because only Winnik was really good in those situations. Lupul is alright, but Kadri is more of a skill guy. So only our third line was good at the forecheck and cycle game, but our 3rd could not really score well.
With this new configuration, it basically puts our skill guys all on the top line and they're probably not even going to attempt to play a forecheck and cycle game. They'll try and play based on their pure skill, so they probably will not be dumping the puck in or anything like that.
The new second line I think is a good mix of scoring and the ability to play the forecheck and cycle game. JVR wasn't able to put his size to good use on the first line (unless it was an individual effort), and I think his size will be more of an asset on this second line while still being able to provide scoring.
Our third line I don't think will change much... swapping Winnik for Clarkson is a bit of a wash.... the new third line will probably still be able to play an effective forecheck and cycle game but will probably struggle to get goals. It also puts Winnik and Komorov on the same line which will be helpful for the PK.
The first line will probably just be our PP1 line... our 3rd line will be our PK 1 line (Komorov and Winnik). ... and our second line can do PP2 and PK2 (Bozak and JVR).
I think it will be important to have Phaneuf out with our top line because they will be very weak defensively... so we need solid defenders who can prevent the goals.