Examples of good/great players not meshing well on the ice?

[Trap Jesus]

Sometimes good/great players just don't have good chemistry with each other, or their playing styles don't mesh well. What are the best examples people can think of?

One that stood out to me was Jagr playing with Bergeron and Marchand for the 2013 playoffs. Jagr isn't the easiest player to play with in general, but his puck possession style of play did not work at all with the other 2, who are known more for cycling and quick passing. It led to Bergeron/Marchand deferring to Jagr quite a bit, and it just didn't end up going anywhere most of the time. It can probably partly be attributed to playoffs vs. regular season, but that line's production went way down after putting Jagr in place of Seguin on the RW.

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[Rodgerwilco]

Pretty much every skilled winger who tried to play with Crosby.

Crosby - Kessel didn't work out.
Crosby - Neal didn't work out.
Crosby - Perron didn't work out.

 

[Clatartar]

Pretty much every skilled winger who tried to play with Crosby.

Crosby - Kessel didn't work out.
Crosby - Neal didn't work out.
Crosby - Perron didn't work out.

Neal was over ppg with Sid..
Sid-Phil hasnt been tried outside of 10 games in Phil's first season under Johnston
Perron never got to play lw with Sid

Brassard-Phil doesn't work

 

[blood gin]

Gretzky - Hull

 

[catnip]

Malkin and Ovechkin tend to be fairly underwhelming on Team Russia.

 

[TheGoldenGod]

Gretzky - Hull

Keenan's fault

 

[Charlie Conway]

Gaborik - Richards - Nash was supposed to be the Rangers monster line. Didn't work.

Some guys need the puck to be effective. Some guys need the space. Some guys need to be there to receive the puck. It's why something unexpected works well.

Kreider - Zibanejad - Buchnevich works because Kreider and Buchnevich can open up space.

Zuccs and Hayes never worked on the same line because they both like to leadthe play with their passing.

 

[Tripod]

BSchenn with Giroux and Voracek

They worked great on the PP and in theory, all Schenn had to do was be a shooter at ES, but it never seemed to click.

 

[Inkling]

Pacioretty and Drouin

 

[ZeroPucksGiven]

Gretzky - Hull

Beat me to it

Wasn't Oates the 1 guy who really connected with Hull? And then they traded Oates...

 

[sr edler]

I guess Mogilny & Bure in VAN. Both were RW at that point. When they played together in juniors and in CSKA Bure was LW.

 

[Jets2point0]

Iginla and Conroy hated each other

 

[Thordic]

Look at the late 90s Rangers. Signed every good player we could find and nothing worked until we got Jagr (and Lundqvist came over).