Detroit's top line of Mantha-Larkin-Bertuzzi turning heads

Muffin

Avalanche Flavoured
Aug 14, 2009
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Meaning you’re desperate to prove your point?
No it means I can name 6 lines off the top of my head that's better than that line. News flash, most top lines on playoff teams are better than top lines on bottom feeders. I mean I was cheering for you guys last season because you almost outtanked Ottawa, had me worried for a bit there.
 
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DanZ

Registered User
Mar 6, 2008
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No it means I can name 6 lines off the top of my head that's better than that line. News flash, most top lines on playoff teams are better than top lines on bottom feeders. I mean I was cheering for you guys last season because you almost outtanked Ottawa, had me worried for a bit there.

Statistically, most of those lines haven’t been better than Detroit’s line recently. Whether or not that is sustained remains to be seen, but you don’t have to get all pissy about people recognizing it as a possibility.
 

tucker3434

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Statistically, most of those lines haven’t been better than Detroit’s line recently. Whether or not that is sustained remains to be seen, but you don’t have to get all pissy about people recognizing it as a possibility.

Statistically, a 9 game sample size is insignificant, especially when some were playing playoff hockey and others were in meaningless games.

Good for them for this run, but they’re a ways off from getting recognition among the guys who’ve sustained a high level for significantly longer.
 

WingsMJN2965

Registered User
Oct 13, 2017
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It'll be interesting to see if Mantha can continue this level of play over an extended period of time.

In the past, he's shown flashes of dominance, but I don't ever think I've seen him like he's been this year, including preseason, where he just looks like and immediate scoring threat every time he steps on the ice.
 

Kairi Zaide

Unforgiven
Aug 11, 2009
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Huh? That line is not a top NHL line let along a head turner.
Responding to a post asking for reasons why they're not by saying they're not.
That's quite a convincing argument.

Guess being the 5th best line at 5v5 in goals for, while being 2nd (if you include the Dallas line) in GF% (they scored twice as much as they got scored on), despite being deployed as a shut down role much more than the other lines close to them offensively, doesn't make them good enough to be a "top line". All while maintening normal PDO, unlike the Dallas line.
 

DanZ

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Mar 6, 2008
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Statistically, a 9 game sample size is insignificant, especially when some were playing playoff hockey and others were in meaningless games.

Good for them for this run, but they’re a ways off from getting recognition among the guys who’ve sustained a high level for significantly longer.

They’ve been hot for more than 9 games. That’s just when they really took off. They’ve been one of the better lines in the league since January.
 

newfy

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Jul 28, 2010
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22nd line in fantasy hockey and between the three of them they definitely have more defensive value than some lines ahead of them. On top of that, they havent proven it enough to really be high on a list like that but theyre playing higher than 22nd the last 40 games or so.

As far as the match up game goes, theres very few centers in the league that I worry about Larkin really losing a match up badly to. He dominated Matthews and Tavares last year head to head
 

RedHawkDown

still trying to trust the yzerplan
Aug 26, 2011
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Just give it time. People won’t take them seriously until a few more months of continued dominance. Anyone who watches Detroit can see they are absolutely dominant every time they step on the ice but yes it’ll take sustained success for those who don’t watch the team to believe it.

and I don’t blame anyone for not regularly watching wings games because outside of this line the entire team is impressively atrocious
 

DingDongCharlie

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Sep 12, 2010
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I'm not surprised. Larkin has been excellent for awhile now and Mantha was due for a breakout. I wanted Holland to weasel him away before he fully broke out but I knew that was as likely as us bringing back red light to solve our goaltending issues.
 

tucker3434

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They’ve been hot for more than 9 games. That’s just when they really took off. They’ve been one of the better lines in the league since January.

Other than that 5 game stretch right at the end after the wings had long been eliminated from the playoffs, the game logs aren’t that impressive. Larkin was doing pretty well all year. The other two both had long stretches where they were held off the scoresheet.

Realistically, they were the best line in hockey for a 4-5 game stretch then probably just above average the rest of the way.
 

vancityluongo

curse of the strombino
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Better? hard to say, different style of player completely.

No it's not hard to say lol, Todd Bertuzzi was a top-3 player in the world for a 15 month stretch between January 2002 and March 2003.

His pushoff move in front of the net was absolutely dominant.
 
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