Sedin Sedin Burrows (1)
Sven Bo Jake (2)
Prust Sutter Dorsett (3)
Hansen McCann Vrbata (2)
1-2-3-4 Willie
Sedins with Burrows makes the most sense because they still play very well together. If not Burrows, then absolutely Vrbata. I think it was the Sedin's first exhibition game, but they weren't doing anything of note until they had a couple of shifts with Burrows, and you could feel their excitement for the game. Passes started to connect and they were all over the ice. I think Burrows has looked re-invigorated this preseason and it would be good to get some stability in games right off the bat.
Personally, I think the "fourth line" would just kill it going out against any lower lines. They have the speed and finesse not to get trucked and they'd play most of their time on offense anyway. I think Vrbata would have more chemistry with McCann than he would with Bo. Mostly just a gut feeling, but there seems to be a better mix of styles with those three. Hansen is great at retrieving pucks and passes well. Vrbata loves to shoot and McCann is great at setting up plays and finishing. If McCann is up, I'd really like to see him get a bunch of games with Vrbata.
The Sutter line is pretty self explanatory. I suspect Higgins would quickly replace Prust on that line and it becomes a pretty solid minute eating defensive unit. Plays to Sutters game.
Virtanen creates a lot more space on the ice than Vrbata for Sven and Bo to work. That line just had that synchronicity that shows up between players every so often. Certainly one would expect Radim to man the wing with them, but it just didn't seem to work all that well. It wasn't bad or anything, it just seemed like Sven looked more limited and Bo was doing all the leg work retrieving the puck. With Virtanen there, you've got Jake doing a lot of puck retrieval, which allows Bo to organize things on the ice the way he'd like. Sven seems to have a good eye to recognizing his linemates strengths and getting the puck to them in good areas of the ice.
Edler Tanev
Hutton Bartkowski
Hamhuis Sbisa
Miller/Markstrom
Obviously some of these comments are from very limited viewing, so their accuracy/value may be limited. etc. I'm also pretty confident we'll see none of these players together opening night. lol.
I always want the team to win, and nothing would make me happier than to see the team succeed, but if they don't do well this year, it's not going to hurt like it has in the past decade.
