New coach new lines?

[LeafingTheWay]

- I was super wrong on Spezza, he's been great for his offensive role.
- Engvall has been fanastic and is the complete package. Future top-9 guy for sure IMO.
- Petan has impressed me with his strength, playmaking and defensive play. I know Spezza gets the credit, but a ton of good Spezza plays were because of Petan's good play before the goal.

Also, I'm very surprised people are saying Johnsson has been useless on that line. He's been great IMO. That line has been dominant and Johnsson has been a fast, fiesty player on that line.

That being said, Engvall and Mikheyev are the first big guys on this team that I've seen play with a skilled, fast and physical game. Hyman was fast and physical, but lacked the hands. Engvall/Mikheyev have everything. I would put Engvall-Matthews-Nylander line as Engvall seems to have great IQ with transition plays (I.e knows when to cycle, to bring puck back to D instead of dumping it in, etc).

 

[sxvnert]

FINALLY Hyman on the third line where he belongs.

Johnsson Matthews Nylander
Mik Tavares Marner
Hyman Kerfoot Kapanen
Engvall Goat Petan/Spezza

 

[gabeliscious]

FINALLY Hyman on the third line where he belongs.

Johnsson Matthews Nylander
Mik Tavares Marner
Hyman Kerfoot Kapanen
Engvall Goat Petan/Spezza

me likely.

gonna look even better when moore is back on the 4th line.

 

[sxvnert]

me likely.

gonna look even better when moore is back on the 4th line.

Would love to see a fourth line of: Engvall Spezza Petan

 

[nobody]

Engvall - Matthews - Nylander
Mikheyev - Tavares - Marner
Johnsson - Kerfoot - Kapanen
Moore - Spezza/ GOAT - Hyman
GOAT

Give me that Keefe.

 

[zeke]

31 in 28, 22 in 28(actually playing closer to 31 in 28 type player) and 16 in 28( hes not a first liner) is not one of the best lines in hockey. Dominating scoring chances is not good enough if the production is not there to match. Our record is not great despite having a AM/AJ/WN as our top line with great underlying statistics.

Nylander+Matthews are gonna be getting top end minutes along with Marner+JT. The underlying stats need to transition to production for the advanced stats to be valuable otherwise they're baseless numbers that simply overstate the value our 1st line brings.

Posters always claim how so and so are playing at a unsustainable level(McDavid, drai, pasta, Marchand, mack, eichel etc) and value what our 1st line brings b/c they are supposed to be more sustainable in their production. People don't realize how big the gap in production is between most of the mentioned superstars vs our guys. When they fall off they still end up 10+ points above our main players. We need more tangible production from 34, 16 and 91.

Why are you counting any production other than 5v5 when discussing 3-man forward lines?

 

[zeke]

I came out of hiding to congratulate zeke on Hyman being bumped down.

High five.

 

[Kurtz]

That 3rd line should be a very good checking line.

 

[DarkKnight]

No problem with Hyman on third line, he can move up and down, should be quite effective with Kappy. Interested to see what Mikheyev can do as well...

 

[saltming]

Alas the HF happy button has been pressed.
I don't mind Mikheyev on the Tavares line, but still would have liked to see how they played with Hyman there

 

[Martin Skoula]

That 3rd line should be a very good checking line.

The amount of time they can waste just cycling in the offensive zone is going to be annoying to deal with for the other team. I don't know how much actual offense that cycling will generate, but if they're doing it against the opponent's main offensive line, does it matter?

 

[hockeynorth]

The amount of time they can waste just cycling in the offensive zone is going to be annoying to deal with for the other team. I don't know how much actual offense that cycling will generate, but if they're doing it against the opponent's main offensive line, does it matter?

I'm more thinking defensive play, all three are damn good at shutting it down when they back check. Keefe even said he wants that to be his shut down line.

Since I know Engvall has to go down for cap reasons here's my lineup:

Johnsson-Matthews-Nylander (they've been dominating)
Mikheyev-Tavares-Marner (solid line for sure)
Hyman-Kerfoot-Kapanen (defensive shut down type line, who can also hound you)
Petan-Spezza-Moore (the two have been good and Moore is Moore, what Moore has to be said)
Gauthier/Timashov

Rielly-Barrie (It. Is. Time.)
Muzzin-Ceci (see if Muzzin can do for Ceci what he did for Zaitsev)
Dermott-Holl (should in theory dominate 3rd/4th lines)

Andersen
Not Hutchinson

 

[frizzer1]

Hyman belongs on the third line.
The only change I would make is switch mikheyev and johnsson.
Johnsson,Tavares. and marner were outstanding together last year.
I don’t know if Keefe is aware of that.
Also..Keefe sat with Tavares and marner when they flew from Toronto when he was hired.
And now Hyman is off their line?
Hmmmm.

 

[Battle Lin]

teams are putting all their great players together a lot and playing them a lot, thats how we should go at it too

i think matthews is our best center and marner is our best winger, ones one of the great big elite scorers in the game and ones one of best creators and passers in the game, put them together and have a nice long 10-15 game look

after that, tavares and nylander pretty much falls right into place as our 2nd best C and 2nd best winger...and looks like a starting to a great 2nd line

if im the head coach of this team, i start my lines like this and go from there

_____ - matthews - marner
_____ - tavares - nylander

and for me i just like mikheyev and hyman with their good size and strong defensive game to finish our top 2 lines, but them or johnsson filling out any of the last 2 spots are fine

if im down some games late, i even go,

nylander - matthews - marner

 

[supermann_98]

me likely.

gonna look even better when moore is back on the 4th line.

I think Moore is better than that, and I believe Keefe will make it possible at some point with him getting top-9 and maybe even top-6 duty to fill in for the occasional bumps and bruises that happen over the course of the year.

Babcock stifled Moore's game as much as many other players it has shown. Moore's gritty and has a bit of agitator in him and picks pockets as a forechecker, and had a decent snap shot. If he got any time on either of the top 2 lines LW he would do damage

 

[hobarth]

I see a lot of people consider a Ny/AM/Marner as TO's super line that could be used late in a game to get back into it. Yes this has cred but I think it's too limited.

I'd think a JT/AM/Marner line would also make sense and if AM continues to play at less than his optimum maybe a JT/Ny/Marner combo or a AM/Ny/Marner or a AM/JT/Marner, there are many combos that could be considered. It's one of the benefits of having Ny who I think can be a center on pretty well any line.

What bothered me about the games TO played against Buffalo this weekend was how dominant Eichel looked/was, TO didn't have anything to counter him and Keefe didn't experiment with line combos to counter him. If TO is going to make the playoffs and do well once there TO needs to find lines that can handle the Bergeron line or any other superior line. That shutdown line isn't going to be any great defensive line, it's going to need to be a line that can not only defend them but also out possess them or at least equal them.

Against Buffalo Eichel was Buffalo's best player, he basically controlled the game thru 6 periods but after him Buffalo doesn't have much so a 2nd line of for instance Johnnson or Mikhey/Nylander/Kappy would've probably been enough to handle what little depth Buffalo has beyond the Eichel line. TO probably could've won both games but I thought TO was weakened by the lack of vision of the coach which I thought was Babs' greatest weakness. If the lines aren't working don't keep throwing them out there time after time, it's maddening.

 

[Nithoniniel]

Matthews,nylander(not much he is well worth his deal rn and could be a slight steal if he improves a bit more) (and marner and Tavares) need to be better than top 20 in so and so stats. If they are elite players and want to justify there contracts they need to be top 5 in these 5v5 points. The fault in lack of power play production lies heavily on the players imo. They have one of the most stacked units in the league but have not performed well there.

First of all, I have no idea how you arrive at the conclusion that four of our guys should be top 5 in the league at 5v5 to be worth their contracts. There are now 11 skaters making $10M or more, which means by their cap hit that they should be competing for one of those top spots. You have another bunch just below. I don't know if you are just going by cap hit sorted, but that doesn't really make sense either. In that case, any time McDavid is not leading the league, he's underperforming. In reality, he's a $15-16M player being paid substantially less.

Second, first you say they are not an elite line because of all situations points. When I change it to points from when they are actually a line, you call it 'so and so stats'. No offense, but you are moving the goalposts here.

Third, I don't understand why you keep mixing in PP time. Let's say that someone is on a really struggling line. However he is tearing the league apart on the PP. Does that make the line more dangerous? No, because what he does away from the line doesn't make it better. It's the same here.

The Matthews line has produced like one of the best lines in the league and they have the underlying numbers to match. When they are on the ice together, very few lines in the league can match them.

 

[Nithoniniel]

Against Buffalo Eichel was Buffalo's best player, he basically controlled the game thru 6 periods but after him Buffalo doesn't have much so a 2nd line of for instance Johnnson or Mikhey/Nylander/Kappy would've probably been enough to handle what little depth Buffalo has beyond the Eichel line. TO probably could've won both games but I thought TO was weakened by the lack of vision of the coach which I thought was Babs' greatest weakness. If the lines aren't working don't keep throwing them out there time after time, it's maddening.

We've had changes through three lines multiple times already in the first five games. I'm not sure what you are expecting here.

 

[hobarth]

We've had changes through three lines multiple times already in the first five games. I'm not sure what you are expecting here.

A winning team based on my presumption that TO has the players to win especially against a not very good Buffalo.

 

[SHANNYPLAN]

Johnsson, Ceci, Hutch for Upgraded RHD and Backup

Engvall - Matthews - Nylander
Micheyev - Tavares - Marner
Hyman - Kerfoot - Kapanen
Gauthier - Spezza - Moore

Rielly - Upgrade
Muzzin - Barrie
Dermott - Holl

Andersen
Backup

 

[jaric1862]

When Moore comes back I'd like to see them move Hyman to RW again. He looked better there

 

[acrobaticgoalie]

I would like to see these forward lines tried out. Might spread the work ethic out a little bit among the lines.

Hyman Matthews Marner
Moore Tavares Nylander
Johnsson Kerfoot Kapanen
Timashov Spezza Gauthier

 

[landeskog11]

in my video game the line of mikhey-tavery-marny were unstoppable, in real life not so much lol

 

[ShaneFalco]

The Goat to me has gone back to looking ... meh
Timashov - meh
I'd like to see Agostino up and Marchment once he gets some games in

 

[landeskog11]

wish the Goat would play like tom wilson or austin watson with his size.