Line Combos: Lineup 2017-2018 Part II

[groovejuice]

Balanced 3 lines idea:

Pacioretty - Plekanec - Gallagher
Drouin - Danault - Lehkonen
Byron - Galchenyuk - Shaw
Hudon - Mitchell - Hemsky
(Martinsen, De La Rose)

Schlemko - Weber
Alzner - Petry
Jerabek - Benn
(Davidson)

That's a blender lineup. How did that work out the last 75 times Therrien went there?

 

[mariolemieux66]

Balanced 3 lines idea:

Pacioretty - Plekanec - Gallagher
Drouin - Danault - Lehkonen
Byron - Galchenyuk - Shaw
Hudon - Mitchell - Hemsky
(Martinsen, De La Rose)

Schlemko - Weber
Alzner - Petry
Jerabek - Benn
(Davidson)

Ugly!

That defense eh!?

 

[Clumsyhab]

I'd try

Hudon - Danault - Drouin in the pre-season for a game. Just because... we never know.

 

[BaseballCoach]

Balanced 3 lines idea:

Pacioretty - Plekanec - Gallagher
Drouin - Danault - Lehkonen
Byron - Galchenyuk - Shaw
Hudon - Mitchell - Hemsky
(Martinsen, De La Rose)

Schlemko - Weber
Alzner - Petry
Jerabek - Benn
(Davidson)

That's a blender lineup. How did that work out the last 75 times Therrien went there?

All we need to do is flip Plekanec and Galchenyuk.

 

[M.C.G. 31]

Balanced 3 lines idea:

Pacioretty - Plekanec - Gallagher
Drouin - Danault - Lehkonen
Byron - Galchenyuk - Shaw
Hudon - Mitchell - Hemsky
(Martinsen, De La Rose)

Schlemko - Weber
Alzner - Petry
Jerabek - Benn
(Davidson)

I'd rather pull my eyes out with a fork than watch Plekanec anywhere near our top-six these days.

 

[RJJ]

#67 Max Pacioretty - #24 Phillip Danault - #11 Brendan Gallagher
#62 Artturi Lehkonen - #27 Alex Galchenyuk - #92 Jonathan Drouin
#41 Paul Byron - #14 Tomas Plekanec - #83 Ales Hemsky
#54 Charles Hudon - #17 Torrey Mitchell - #65 Andrew Shaw

#25 Jacob De La Rose - #37 Andreas Martinsen


Jakub Jerabek - #6 Shea Weber
#22 Karl Alzner - #26 Jeff Petry
#21 David Schlemko - #8 Jordie Benn

#88 Brandon Davidson

#31 Carey Price - #35 Al Montoya

#22 Chris Terry - #13 Peter Holland - #17 Nikita Scherbak
#11 Daniel Carr - #32 Byron Froese - #25 Michael McCarron
Jeremiah Addison - #24 Daniel Audette - Antoine Waked
#29 Niki Petti - #38 Markus Eisenschmid - #37 Jérémy Grégoire

#34 David Broll - Thomas Ebbing

#42 Matt Taormina - #2 Zach Redmond
#45 Joe Morrow - #14 Brett Lernout
Simon Bourque - #8 Noah Juulsen

Stefan Leblanc

#35 Charlie Lindgren - #31 Zach Fucale​

That line up looks OK but it would have been awesome if we could delete Hemsky and put Gally there and have a signed Radulov where you have Gally. That would have been a contender. The most frustrating part is that it was easily doable.

 

[groovejuice]

All we need to do is flip Plekanec and Galchenyuk.

Drouin and Lehkonen should switch sides. I'm not certain that Hemsky is best utilized on the 4th.

 

[BaseballCoach]

Drouin and Lehkonen should switch sides.

Absolutely not. Drouin will have less problems in his own zone on the LW and Lehkonen will finish more plays from his off wing.

 

[Kraken Jokes]

I'd rather pull my eyes out with a fork than watch Plekanec anywhere near our top-six these days.

Okay...

Drouin - Danault - Lehkonen
Byron - Galchenyuk - Shaw
Pacioretty - Plekanec - Gallagher
Hudon - Mitchell - Hemsky

Better? Maybe you missed the point of my post.
(Comes back with "Pacioretty shouldn't be on the 3rd line!")

 

[Kraken Jokes]

Drouin and Lehkonen should switch sides. I'm not certain that Hemsky is best utilized on the 4th.

I absolutely disagree that Drouin should play RW and Lehkonen on LW. I do agree somewhat on Hemsky. Where I was most flexible in the lineup about where Shaw, Gallagher and Hemsky line up, but I'm just not as sure about where Hemsky fits and what he brings. Starting on the 4th to help with Hudon and be available for when we need to shuffle is best right now.

 

[Habs Halifax]

I absolutely disagree that Drouin should play RW and Lehkonen on LW. I do agree somewhat on Hemsky. Where I was most flexible in the lineup about where Shaw, Gallagher and Hemsky line up, but I'm just not as sure about where Hemsky fits and what he brings. Starting on the 4th to help with Hudon and be available for when we need to shuffle is best right now.

Why (bolded part)?

 

[BaseballCoach]

Why (bolded part)?

Drouin will get eaten alive in his own zone playing on his off-wing. He has played mostly LW when successful with TBL.

Lehkonen has shown he can handle the off-wing in the D zone, and his one timer will be lethal being set up by JD.

 

[NobleSix]

Okay...

Drouin - Danault - Lehkonen
Byron - Galchenyuk - Shaw
Pacioretty - Plekanec - Gallagher
Hudon - Mitchell - Hemsky

Better? Maybe you missed the point of my post.
(Comes back with "Pacioretty shouldn't be on the 3rd line!")

Terrible. Absolutely terrible line.

What a waste of Galchenyuk.

 

[Tankster*]

Balanced 3 lines idea:

Pacioretty - Plekanec - Gallagher
Drouin - Danault - Lehkonen
Byron - Galchenyuk - Shaw
Hudon - Mitchell - Hemsky
(Martinsen, De La Rose)

Schlemko - Weber
Alzner - Petry
Jerabek - Benn
(Davidson)

Let me guess, you hate Chuky and adore Pleks ?

Plekanecs is done, he needs to be off this team like yesterday.

 

[Scriptor]

I absolutely disagree that Drouin should play RW and Lehkonen on LW. I do agree somewhat on Hemsky. Where I was most flexible in the lineup about where Shaw, Gallagher and Hemsky line up, but I'm just not as sure about where Hemsky fits and what he brings. Starting on the 4th to help with Hudon and be available for when we need to shuffle is best right now.

Drouin as a LW favours his creativity and playmaking ability. Lehkonen on the RW favours his scoring prowess with more angles on net when he shoots. It seems natural to me, especially since Lehkonen's defensive awareness transcends the position which he plays at. Danault can retrieve pucks in the offensive zone as well as the defensive zone (for a quicker transition game). Not unlike when Radulov was there, Danault won't be asked to be the gifted playmaker on that line. Drouin will take care of that.

It's easy to say that Galchenyuk could play RW on that line as well, if we look at increasing the shot angles of a sniper, but two defensively so-so players on the same line will place that line at risk (Drouin and Chuckie). Besides, we need a 2nd C for the top-six (until we get one via a trade, if we ever do).

 

[Scriptor]

The Pacioretty - Galchenyuk - Gallagher line makes sense because of familiarity and past success, but it hinges on Pacioretty getting behind this line. The Captain's preference for playing with Danault over Galchenyuk was pretty obvious by his unfiltered comments praising Danault publicly. Perhaps Radulov not being there makes Danault less of a complimentary player to play with Pacioretty and he will get on board with a return to the Pacioretty - Galchenyuk - Gallagher line.

Also, a lot will depend on Gallagher successfully having a bounce back year. Of course, playing with Galchenyuk and Pacioretty should give him every chance of that.

I honestly think that Drouin should play LW -- whomever he plays with -- to start, at least. Put the odds in his favour of performing from the get-go, even if it means shying away from the pressure of placing a gifted playmaker with your #1 shooter in Pacioretty.

Preseason might bring experimentation, though, just to see about the chemistry...

 

[M.C.G. 31]

Okay...

Drouin - Danault - Lehkonen
Byron - Galchenyuk - Shaw
Pacioretty - Plekanec - Gallagher
Hudon - Mitchell - Hemsky

Better? Maybe you missed the point of my post.
(Comes back with "Pacioretty shouldn't be on the 3rd line!")

I know the point of your post. It's still wrong to put Plekanec with anyone other than two defensive forwards who can play the tough matchups and not force our best scorer to play in a defensive role.

 

[BaseballCoach]

Okay...


Drouin - Danault - Lehkonen
Byron - Galchenyuk - Shaw
Pacioretty - Plekanec - Gallagher
Hudon - Mitchell - Hemsky


Better? Maybe you missed the point of my post.
(Comes back with "Pacioretty shouldn't be on the 3rd line!")

How about 4 scoring lines? An * next to every player who has scored 18 or more in the NHL

Hudon - *Plekanec- *Hemsky
*Drouin - Danault - *Lehkonen
*Pacioretty - *Galchenyuk - *Gallagher
*Byron - DeLaRose- *Shaw

I know it's not perfectly balanced due to not being able to divide 9 scorers into 4 lines, so we can bench Gallagher and use Scherbak instead.

 

[KevSkillz4]

Jonathan Drouin - Alex Galchenyuk - Arturri Lehkonen. (or Pacioretty - Galchenyuk - Drouin).
Max Pacioretty - Phillip Danault - Brendan Gallagher. (or Lehkonen - Danault - Gallagher).
Paul Byron - Tomas Plekanec - Ales Hemsky // Andrew Shaw.
Andreas Martinsen - Torrey Mitchell - Andrew Shaw // Ales Hemsky.

Karl Alzner - Shea Weber.
Jakub Jerabek - Jeff Petry.
David Schlemko - Jordie Benn.

 

[Kraken Jokes]

Terrible. Absolutely terrible line.

What a waste of Galchenyuk.

Only if you're underrating Byron and Shaw. Both are very good defensively which takes a bit of pressure off Galchenyuk. Byron is great in transition, is a good playmaker/passer and can get to the net quickly for rebounds. Shaw adds grit, net-front presence, can take draws at times, and is also decently skilled and quick.

 

[Belial]

Only if you're underrating Byron and Shaw. Both are very good defensively which takes a bit of pressure off Galchenyuk. Byron is great in transition, is a good playmaker/passer and can get to the net quickly for rebounds. Shaw adds grit, net-front presence, can take draws at times, and is also decently skilled and quick.

We have so many decent wingers that Byron and Shaw are probably going to play on the 4th line.

 

[NobleSix]

Only if you're underrating Byron and Shaw. Both are very good defensively which takes a bit of pressure off Galchenyuk. Byron is great in transition, is a good playmaker/passer and can get to the net quickly for rebounds. Shaw adds grit, net-front presence, can take draws at times, and is also decently skilled and quick.

They're good third liners.

Galchenyuk should be nowhere near third liners. I don't care how defensively reliable they are. Chucky is on this team to score and produce offense. Playing him with Byron and Shaw is a gross misallocation of such a resource.

 

[Kraken Jokes]

Another approach is playing both Drouin and Galchenyuk at centre:

Pacioretty - Drouin - Gallagher
Byron - Galchenyuk - Lehkonen
Danault - Plekanec - Shaw
Hudon - Mitchell - Hemsky
(De La Rose, Martinsen)

 

[Kraken Jokes]

They're good third liners.

Galchenyuk should be nowhere near third liners. I don't care how defensively reliable they are. Chucky is on this team to score and produce offense. Playing him with Byron and Shaw is a gross misallocation of such a resource.

But he's also more of a shooter so he'd to play with a top-6 playmaker. With Radulov gone, the only such beast we have is Drouin (who is also known to not be good defensively). They'd be dangerous but could also be easily exposed no matter who you put on that other wing.

 

[BaseballCoach]

But he's also more of a shooter so he'd to play with a top-6 playmaker. With Radulov gone, the only such beast we have is Drouin (who is also known to not be good defensively). They'd be dangerous but could also be easily exposed no matter who you put on that other wing.

Pacioretty is a double threat, he can score but he can also pass. Galchenyuk scored 30 in 15-16 playing with Patches just 22 games. Around half his goals came in that period with Pacioretty.

Agreed we should not put Drouin with Galchenyuk if we can help it.

Patches-Chucky-Gally
Drouin-Danault-Lehkonen
Byron-Plekanec-Shaw

I don't think I am being over-optimistic when I say that:
The first line should get 85 goals, 35-30-20
The "second" line should get 60 goals, 25-15-20
The third line should get 45 goals, 18-12-15

Pacioretty, Gallagher, Byron, Pleks and Shaw have all scored more in other years, even in the last two-three years, than I'm putting them down for.