Greatest Line Last 20 Years?

[WingsFan95]

By line I mean the top offensive line and defensive pairing.

I think Lemieux, Stevens, Jagr with Coffey ( I'm not sure if it was Samuelsson or Murphy with Coffey on that first line, or if Coffey was on that first line ) is pretty solid.

But in 02, Detroit:

Yzerman, Fedorov ( I know he didn't always play winger but still ), Shanahan

With Chelios and Lidstrom on defense. Droool.

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[Gobo]

That year the Avalance had Selanne and Kariya, what were there lines like? I always remember thinking that Avalanche team shoulda been unstoppable.

 

[WingsFan95]

Kariya was ok and Selanne was injured.

As I recall.

 

[Zaphod]

Selanne-Sakic-Kariya, for the ten games it lasted before Granato started fooling around, looks like a damned good line on paper, but it has little business being in this conversation, particularly when actual, productive lines suggested could include Mario Lemieux and a defenseman like Paul Coffey, or any one of those Wings lines with three HHOF forwards and Lidstrom.

A short-lived Avs combination that could be an 'also-ran' in this discussion, if we weren't including defensemen - Forsberg-Sakic-Fleury. In 98-99 all three were top-ten in scoring.

 

[Big Phil]

The Pizza line (Spezza, Heatley, Alfredsson) and the Legion of Doom (Lindros, Leclair and Renberg) were two lines who were dominant for a couple of years and managed to reach the final without winning. They didn't stay together particularly long, but it was longer than some lines stick together

 

[Loto68]

Its probably not considered that great, but the Straka-Nylander-Jagr line Triple-handedly ended the Rangers playoff drought.

 

[insomniac]

Heatley - Spezza - Alfredsson
Chara - Volchenkov
Hasek​

 

[TheDevilMadeMe]

Not the greatest on paper, but NJ's A line (Elias-Arnott-Sykora) dominated puck possession when the were backed up by Scott Stevens and Brian Rafalski.

 

[Iplayhockehh]

The West Coast Express line which consisted of a peaking Naslund had Bertuzzi and Morrison riding shot gun. That line was pretty deadly.

 

[mrhockey193195]

My vote goes to either Legion of Doom or the Elias-Arnott-Sykora line.

EDIT: I didn't realize this was including defensive pairings too. My vote definitely goes to Elias-Arnott-Sykora then, since they had some combination of Stevens/Niedermayer/Daneyko/Rafalski on defense.

 

[TheDevilMadeMe]

The West Coast Express line which consisted of a peaking Naslund had Bertuzzi and Morrison riding shot gun. That line was pretty deadly.

Great forward line but the defensemen who played behind it (Jovanovski-?) weren't as strong.

 

[Iplayhockehh]

Great forward line but the defensemen who played behind it (Jovanovski-?) weren't as strong.

Maybe its the homer in me talking, but jovo and ohlund had some pretty good offensive stats behind that line.

 

[WingsFan95]

My vote definitely goes to Elias-Arnott-Sykora then, since they had some combination of Stevens/Niedermayer/Daneyko/Rafalski on defense.

That is quite disgusting on the defensive front, no wonder they loved The Trap.

 

[Neonmile]

The Russian Five in 96-97, what else?

 

[TheDevilMadeMe]

That is quite disgusting on the defensive front, no wonder they loved The Trap.

Devils didn't play "The Trap" when the A-line was together. Larry Robinson played an aggressive 1-2-2 and I think Robbie Ftorek (who first put the line together) did too.

 

[WingsFan95]

The Russian Five in 96-97, what else?

Obviously that's the one with the best name.

But Larionov and Kozlov are, well Larionov is a Hall of Famer, but mostly of his international exploits.

 

[TheDevilMadeMe]

The Russian Five in 96-97, what else?

Unique in that they actually did play as a 5 man unit.

Stevens-Rafalski was the most common pair behind the A-line, but even then, it was only about 50% of the time.

 

[Backlund]

Rick Nash - Sidney Crosby - Jarome Iginla

 

[njdevils1982]

That is quite disgusting on the defensive front, no wonder they loved The Trap.

A-line devils era were the highest scoring team in the league. they were a machine both ways.

 

[silkyjohnson50]

The Russian Five in 96-97, what else?

I've never seen a 5-man unit in the NHL that played as cohesive as those guys.

Even if you don't consider them the greatest unit, they have to go down as one of the most influential. Detroit's famous "puck possession" game in large part stems from the Russian 5. They gave the NHL a new way of looking at the game IMO.

 

[shazariahl]

For the first time in history, I probably have to agree with 99wasnotthebest and vote for the Lemieux, Stevens, Jagr line with Coffey and any random guy on D. The 2nd best offensive forward of all time, with the 2nd best offensive D-man of all time, with Stevens and Jagr in there as well? Honestly, that's one of the best lines ever, let alone in the last 20 years.

 

[TheDevilMadeMe]

For the first time in history, I probably have to agree with 99wasnotthebest and vote for the Lemieux, Stevens, Jagr line with Coffey and any random guy on D. The 2nd best offensive forward of all time, with the 2nd best offensive D-man of all time, with Stevens and Jagr in there as well? Honestly, that's one of the best lines ever, let alone in the last 20 years.

Was that a regular line though? I barely remember the Penguins of the time, but I thought Lemieux usually played with Recchi/Tocchet and Jagr usually played on the second line with Francis?

 

[ricky0034]

The Russian Five in 96-97, what else?

came here to post this

 

[Gylf]

Three personal favourites:

Lidström
Rafalski
Zetterberg
Datsyuk
Holmström

Blake
Duchesne
Gretzky
Granato
Sandström

Therien
Desjardins
Lindros
LeClair
Renberg

 

[cjdv16]

Its probably not considered that great, but the Straka-Nylander-Jagr line Triple-handedly ended the Rangers playoff drought.

Great is a major exaggeration there.