GDT: Florida Panthers @ San Jose Sharks 7:30pm 11-5-15

[Juxtaposer]

I'm really happy Hertl is even making this a question. He's been phenomenal as #2C even if his counting stars aren't as good as his play suggests they would be. He's been excellent against hard competition and is still a possession beast. I'm loathe to break up Marleau-Couture or Marleau-Ward though. And I'm not really excited for Hertl to have to go back to having Nieto and Wingels as his wingers. Basically, we really just need another offensively talented winger for the third line. Meier would be ideal if he were three years older. Goldobin might be okay for a few games but who knows.

At the same time, 40 points at even strength would be pretty gosh darn amazing.

 

[CrypTic]

I'm really happy Hertl is even making this a question. He's been phenomenal as #2C even if his counting stars aren't as good as his play suggests they would be. He's been excellent against hard competition and is still a possession beast. I'm loathe to break up Marleau-Couture or Marleau-Ward though. And I'm not really excited for Hertl to have to go back to having Nieto and Wingels as his wingers. Basically, we really just need another offensively talented winger for the third line. Meier would be ideal if he were three years older. Goldobin might be okay for a few games but who knows.

At the same time, 40 points at even strength would be pretty gosh darn amazing.

Hertl has taken this opportunity and run with it. He's been amazing, especially when you consider how little time he played at C in the NHL before this. I really don't want to put him on the 3rd line with Nieto and Wingels. At the same time, I don't want to put Couture there either, although I think he'd probably be better at carrying the line than Hertl would. I agree that Cooch is likely to get less points there than on the 2nd line, though.

We either need Wingels and Nieto to step up or have Goldobin, Karlsson + Donskoi (assuming that one is on the top line and one is on the 3rd), or someone else to step up. It seems like DeBoer did more line matching against Florida. I think that should help the 3rd and 4th lines if they play well. It's going to be hard for whomever is on the 4th line to score until Couture and Karlsson are back so I'm not expecting much from Nieto as long as he's on the 4th line.

 

[Pinkfloyd]

Oh boy, one good game and Pink is back on the Stalock train.

Not really but keep thinking that.

And after 1 good game by Stalock, he still has an .880 save %. What's your point?

That one is coming off a good game and one isn't. Jones is the man going forward and the point is to do what's best to keep his play level as high as possible as long as possible when it counts. The more rest he gets now, the better he'll be at the end of the year. That's the point.

 

[Levie]

I'm really happy Hertl is even making this a question. He's been phenomenal as #2C even if his counting stars aren't as good as his play suggests they would be. He's been excellent against hard competition and is still a possession beast. I'm loathe to break up Marleau-Couture or Marleau-Ward though. And I'm not really excited for Hertl to have to go back to having Nieto and Wingels as his wingers. Basically, we really just need another offensively talented winger for the third line. Meier would be ideal if he were three years older. Goldobin might be okay for a few games but who knows.

At the same time, 40 points at even strength would be pretty gosh darn amazing.

Could you give him Donskoi and Tierney then move Nieto to the 1st line? Maybe Tierney can work on turning his game around. Hertl should be fine with them since his minutes will be easier. The problem is we don't have a lot of goal scorers.

 

[TomasHertlsRooster]

Could you give him Donskoi and Tierney then move Nieto to the 1st line? Maybe Tierney can work on turning his game around. Hertl should be fine with them since his minutes will be easier. The problem is we don't have a lot of goal scorers.

Tierney is a center and should definitely stay there. He can eat up 4th line competition.

I honestly think it's better to have Couture on the 3rd line, as he's an F3; a goal scorer. Nieto or Donskoi would both be awesome linemates for Couture because both of them are playmakers, and if Wingels can get his game back, Donskoi-Couture-Wingels would be dominant.

Hertl is playing more like an F2 at this point and his chemistry with Ward and Marleau is better because of it. Couture can't really play F2, which leads to poor production with Marleau; the only time those two were great together was when they had a healthy Havlat, who was a fantastic F2. Last year they weren't too great. Couture is still better than Hertl, but Marleau-Hertl-Ward has looked better than Marleau-Couture-Ward, even though the games with Couture were games in which the Sharks dominated.

When we get healthy, I would go with this.

Nieto-Thornton-Pavelski
Marleau-Hertl-Ward
Donskoi-Couture-Wingels
Karlsson-Tierney-Goodrow/Smith (if Torres comes back, give him this spot)

 

[Alwalys]

Tierney is a center and should definitely stay there. He can eat up 4th line competition.

I honestly think it's better to have Couture on the 3rd line, as he's an F3; a goal scorer. Nieto or Donskoi would both be awesome linemates for Couture because both of them are playmakers, and if Wingels can get his game back, Donskoi-Couture-Wingels would be dominant.

Hertl is playing more like an F2 at this point and his chemistry with Ward and Marleau is better because of it. Couture can't really play F2, which leads to poor production with Marleau; the only time those two were great together was when they had a healthy Havlat, who was a fantastic F2. Last year they weren't too great. Couture is still better than Hertl, but Marleau-Hertl-Ward has looked better than Marleau-Couture-Ward, even though the games with Couture were games in which the Sharks dominated.

When we get healthy, I would go with this.

Nieto-Thornton-Pavelski
Marleau-Hertl-Ward
Donskoi-Couture-Wingels
Karlsson-Tierney-Goodrow/Smith (if Torres comes back, give him this spot)

then again couture was the 22nd highest scorer in the league last year.

 

[CrypTic]

then again couture was the 22nd highest scorer in the league last year.

I think a lot of it depends on how much (and what type) line matching DeBoer will do. If he's going to line match power2power like TMac, Couture might score more on the 3rd line, especially with a good playmaking winger like Donskoi or Goldobin. But if DeBoer is going to continue to give the top lines more offensive zone starts and the 3rd line more defensive zone starts, his scoring will probably go down. OTOH, he would probably be the player you'd most want to face top lines in the d-zone so if that's what DeBoer is going to do with the 3rd line, the offensive vs defensive trade-off might be worth it.