What to do about the second line?

[Incetardis]

So its pretty obvious that this team is struggling with some offensive depth issues. If the Kessel line isn't scoring this team isn't winning and the 2nd line has shown almost nothing so far this season. Maybe it would be too early to worry about it but this trend is carrying over from last season and Lupul & Kadri have no chemistry IMO. So as it stands the second line looks like this;

Lupul Kadri Winnik

What can be done to get some improved production and consistency so that they're more than a 1 line team? Internal? External? What do you think?

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[StringsAttached]

Try JVR-Kadri-Winnik. Kadri and JVR had good chemistry preseason.

Couldn't hurt.

 

[Trapper]

Try JVR-Kadri-Winnik. Kadri and JVR had good chemistry preseason.

Couldn't hurt.

When Booth comes back:
Komarov-Kadri-Lupul
Try that line. Maybe Kadri will take the body again.

 

[HellasLEAF]

JVR - Bozak - Kessel
Komarov - Kadri - Lupul
Winnick - Santa - Panick
Booth - Holland - Clarkson

 

[Incetardis]

When Booth comes back:
Komarov-Kadri-Lupul
Try that line. Maybe Kadri will take the body again.

I think trying Komarov makes sense but I hesitate to take him off the 3rd line which has been real effective so far and I honestly think Kadri/Lupul are the problem and should be split up

 

[StringsAttached]

When Booth comes back:
Komarov-Kadri-Lupul
Try that line. Maybe Kadri will take the body again.

Kadri doesn't have the physique and conditioning to be utilized as an effective physical/agitating player. Hence, why he takes so many penalties to make up for his lack of strength.

 

[Kyle Doobas*]

What's wrong with the second line? They're driving possession and getting chances for the most part. Ideally you'd like to play Kadri/Lupul with a more offensively skilled guy than Winnik, but at this rate the goals will come for them.

If we're going to shake up the lines, I'd prefer to go a little outside the box, and try something like:
If we're going to shake up the lines, I'd go a little outside the box and try something like:

JVR-Kadri-Lupul
Panik-Santorelli-Kessel
Komarov-Bozak-Clarkson
Ashton-Holland-Winnik

Rielly-Robidas
Percy-Phaneuf
Gardiner-Polak

Or maybe shuffle up all the top/bottom six guys like the Wild are doing, roll four lines and whoever makes something happen gets to play more.

Komarov-Santorelli-Kessel
Panik-Kadri-Winnik
JVR-Holland-Clarkson
Lupul-Bozak-Frattin

(or something like that)

 

[Incetardis]

What's wrong with the second line? They're driving possession and getting chances for the most part. Ideally you'd like to play Kadri/Lupul with a more offensively skilled guy than Winnik, but at this rate the goals will come for them.

If we're going to shake up the lines, I'd go a little outside the box and try something like:

JVR-Kadri-Lupul
Panik-Santorelli-Kessel
Komarov-Bozak-Clarkson
Ashton-Holland-Winnik

Rielly-Robidas
Percy-Phaneuf
Gardiner-Polak

Lol! Ummmm... Outside the box is right. You're seriously proposing burying Kessel on a line with Santorelli and Panik? Absurd... Also, not sure why you'd want to change the third line. Komarov, Santorelli, & Clarkson have been great together. I'm just wondering why Carlyle hasn't tried switching JVR and Lupul. Lupul with Bozak & Kessel was just as effective as JVR and hopefully he could find some chemistry with Kadri to get him going. You say they're driving possession? Not sure of their advanced stats (nor do I care) what I see from watching the games intently with my eyes is a line that's ineffective in the offensive zone. Both Kadri & Lupul tend to go full lone ranger and don't look to play off eachother at all

 

[TheOneArmedMan]

Lupul Bozak Kessel
JVR Santorelli Panik
Komarov Kadri Clarkson
Winnick Holland Booth

Put Lupul back with Bozak and Kessel again... it worked just as well as JVR Bozak Kessel

Need to send Kadri a message. Santorelli's defensive awarness is much better than Kadri's so far.

 

[Super Mega]

Lupul Bozak Kessel
JVR Santorelli Panik
Komarov Kadri Clarkson
Winnick Holland Booth

Put Lupul back with Bozak and Kessel again... it worked just as well as JVR Bozak Kessel

Need to send Kadri a message. Santorelli's defensive awarness is much better than Kadri's so far.

would rather keep that third line intact and just make holland / kadri fight for that 2nd C spot.

 

[Kyle Doobas*]

Lol! Ummmm... Outside the box is right. You're seriously proposing burying Kessel on a line with Santorelli and Panik?

If he can score 35 goals with Tyler Bozak and Joey Crabb....

I wasn't really 'proposing' it, I just said that if we were going to change the lines, I'd probably try something dramatically different rather than resting my hopes on, say, bumping JVR to the second line or whatever.

No reason not to colour outside the lines a bit with a team that's had three consecutive historic collapses and is struggling out of the gate, with their next game being against Buffalo.

 

[The Winter Soldier]

Keep the #1 and #3 lines as is. All 3 wins were the combined good play of both lines this year.

The weak link remains the #2 line.

I would simply move Hollland to Center, go with Lupul and Kadri on the wings.

Winnik moves back to the 4th line, bring up Devane, Orr or Broll.

Winnik with Frattin and whomever. 4th line has made little contribution this year, makes no difference without Kozun.

 

[Cor]

Give Frattin a show with Kadri and Lupul.

Winnik - Holland - Panik as a 4th line, and actually play them

 

[The Winter Soldier]

Give Frattin a show with Kadri and Lupul.

Winnik - Holland - Panik as a 4th line, and actually play them

You cannot expect the #1 line to win you every game this year. If they do not score this team has shown in almost never wins.

This is when you need your #2 line to step up, production, not corsi.

Holland deserves a shot much more than Frattin, Kadri has proven to not be able to handle playing Center, move him to the wing. Hope this will add a spark to Lupul. As Lupul goes, the #2 line goes.

It is time to find out what Holland has. Give him a shot at a bigger role.

 

[Cor]

You cannot expect the #1 line to win you every game this year. If they do not score this team has shown in almost never wins.

This is when you need your #2 line to step up, production, not corsi.

Holland deserves a shot much more than Frattin, Kadri has proven to not be able to handle playing Center, move him to the wing. Hope this will add a spark to Lupul. As Lupul goes, the #2 line goes.

It is time to find out what Holland has. Give him a shot at a bigger role.

Holland doesn't deserve anything. Really hasn't been good.

 

[The Winter Soldier]

Holland doesn't deserve anything. Really hasn't been good.

Perhaps, but his last game prior to last night was good. Really he has 1 less point than the current #2 C, with a lot less chances, no one deserves anything if this is the standard. Give him a shot, but you do not mess with our 2 best lines to prop up one line.

 

[Cor]

Perhaps, but his last game prior to last night was good. Really he has 1 less point than the current #2 C, with a lot less chances, no one deserves anything if this is the standard. Give him a shot, but you do not mess with our 2 best lines to prop up one line.

He has one less point than a guy who has two? Oh man, put him with Kessel!

Putting Frattin with Kadri and Lupul to try and form some of the chemistry they had doesn't mess with either the first line, nor the third line.

 

[GordieHoweHatTrick]

JvR - Kadri - Santorelli

 

[The Winter Soldier]

He has one less point than a guy who has two? Oh man, put him with Kessel!

Putting Frattin with Kadri and Lupul to try and form some of the chemistry they had doesn't mess with either the first line, nor the third line.

Frattin has been awful this year, this is not the same Frattin of the fake season of 48 games.

 

[Cor]

Frattin has been awful this year, this is not the same Frattin of the fake season of 48 games.

The season was not fake. The games, and season itself, was real. The Chicago Blackhawks did not win a fake Stanley Cup.

Chemistry has nothing to do with length of a season,

 

[The Winter Soldier]

The season was not fake. The games, and season itself, was real. The Chicago Blackhawks did not win a fake Stanley Cup.

Chemistry has nothing to do with length of a season,

Fake may be colourful usage to illustrate, it was not a true season where you could trust a lot of performances, Frattin is just one example of that year where players that looked good never looked as good since.

 

[PuckMagi]

Lupul - Bozak - Kessel
JVR - Winnik - Clarkson
Komorov - Kadri - Santorelli
Panik - Holland - Frattin

This configuration completely blows up the second line and separates all three players.

The first line was successful at one point in time and hopefully they could get back to the way they were before.

The second line is a pretty big line. JVR is a good goal scorer and will score goals I think regardless of what line he plays on, but I think he might be more suited to playing on a line like this with big line mates who can fore-check and cycle. These lines would allow us to use Clarkson as a 2nd line player which is what he's being paid for. The weak link on that line would be Winnik, but I thought he's been playing really well so far, so I think he deserves to be playing on the second line based on his play. If the line isn't working out, we could try switching Holland and Winnik and see if Holland is legit good enough to be a good centre in the NHL. Also... I think that Kessel and JVR are our two best goal scorers... so it might be a good idea to put them on different lines so that we can get scoring from more than 1 line.

Our third line is good right now, but they're not scoring a ton of goals... so hopefully adding Kadri to that line will allow it to become more of an offensive threat.

The fourth line is what it is... when Booth comes back, he can slot in there... but since this line hasn't got much ice time, it's impossible to know how good they are and whether any of them deserve to be in the top 9. I would still like to see Frattin with Kadri... but we gotta give him some ice time first.

 

[buttman*]

Try JVR-Kadri-Winnik. Kadri and JVR had good chemistry preseason.

Couldn't hurt.

Not sure I understand the logic. Guys want the second line to score and yet they want to keep Winnik on it???

Winnik isn't a scorer. Want the line to score -- start by replacing him.

 

[horner]

So its pretty obvious that this team is struggling with some offensive depth issues. If the Kessel line isn't scoring this team isn't winning and the 2nd line has shown almost nothing so far this season. Maybe it would be too early to worry about it but this trend is carrying over from last season and Lupul & Kadri have no chemistry IMO. So as it stands the second line looks like this;

Lupul Kadri Winnik

What can be done to get some improved production and consistency so that they're more than a 1 line team? Internal? External? What do you think?

What happened to the first line and 4th line

 

[TML1]

Winnik shouldn't play another game on the 2nd line,period!.
Lines should look like this...
JVR-Bozak-kessel
Lupul-Kadri-Booth
Komorov- satorelli-Clarkson
Winnk-holland-Panik