Line Combos: Opening Night Roster

[BonkTastic]

We shouldn't "give" Zibby anything he hasn't earned. He is a great young player... But he won't necessarily continue to be if he gets "given" opportunities he does the opposite of earn, by coming to camp two years in a row not in top shape.

I agree completely.

Maybe I should have worded it differently, or gone into a little more detail: if Zibanejad has earned more minutes after 10 games, we should try and accommodate for that. That's what I meant by "up to speed": as in, if he looks like he did during his peak last season.

If Michalek-Pageau-Ryan look like they have ridiculous chemistry after 10 games, and you can't break them up, then just take minutes away from the 4th line and try:

1A line
2A line
2B line
4th line (5-7 mins/night)

I mean, let's propose a hypothetical scenario that the Michalek-Pageau-Ryan line clicks. That's got to be a best case scenario, right? If so, then your lines going into the playoffs look like:
1A: Hoffman-Turris-Stone
2A: Michalek-Pageau-Ryan
2B: MacArthur-Zibanejad-Lazar
4th: some combination of Prince/Smith/Chiasson/Neil/Puempel

... assuming the 2A line has chemistry, that looks really nice come April.

 

[GWNR]

I agree completely.

Maybe I should have worded it differently, or gone into a little more detail: if Zibanejad has earned more minutes after 10 games, we should try and accommodate for that. That's what I meant by "up to speed": as in, if he looks like he did during his peak last season.

If Michalek-Pageau-Ryan look like they have ridiculous chemistry after 10 games, and you can't break them up, then just take minutes away from the 4th line and try:

1A line
2A line
2B line
4th line (5-7 mins/night)

I mean, let's propose a hypothetical scenario that the Michalek-Pageau-Ryan line clicks. That's got to be a best case scenario, right? If so, then your lines going into the playoffs look like:
1A: Hoffman-Turris-Stone
2A: Michalek-Pageau-Ryan
2B: MacArthur-Zibanejad-Lazar
4th: some combination of Prince/Smith/Chiasson/Neil/Puempel

... assuming the 2A line has chemistry, that looks really nice come April.

I dont see anything wrong with those lines.

I think we may be overestimating Pageau, BUT you can't really make a decision until you try it out. The first 10 games are where you need to adjust every game. If they look like **** after 3 games, mix it up.

Macarthur-Zibby-Lazar is actually an exciting line to me.

San Jose does a similar approach by spreading guys out throughout the 3 lines and they have always been solid offensively.

I get some of you are saying we're overestimating Pageau, but truth is we won't know what we have with him until we give him a shot. Give it a go for 3 games and then reassess

 

[God Says No]

If so, then your lines going into the playoffs look like:
1A: Hoffman-Turris-Stone
2A: Michalek-Pageau-Ryan
2B: MacArthur-Zibanejad-Lazar
4th: some combination of Prince/Smith/Chiasson/Neil/Puempel

... assuming the 2A line has chemistry, that looks really nice come April.

Actually those lines look very good. 2A and 2B can be fluid in terms of minutes and played more if they are hot in a particular game. Although I get the feeling Prince will usurp Michalek's minutes eventually.

 

[benjiv1]

I guess I have a different mentality than a majority of the posters here.

Put your most talented players together, and have them figure it out.

 

[operasen]

Any news on Macarthur. He was concussed for a while last year. Hope its not happening again. That will affect the line combinations.

1A Hoffman - Turris - Stone Can dominate
2A Michalek - Zibanejad - Ryan It's time for these guys to show up or become 2B
2B Puempel - Pageau - Lazar Snipe and push the pace
4A Prince - Smith - Chiasson/Neil

Could see a rotation of Michalek with different centres until someone shows up to claim LW2A. Could see Prince and Puempel switched up. If Puempel is down in the AHL, I'd switch Ryan to LW until MacArthur is back at least.

 

[benjiv1]

Any news on Macarthur. He was concussed for a while last year. Hope its not happening again. That will affect the line combinations.

1A Hoffman - Turris - Stone Can dominate
2A Michalek - Zibanejad - Ryan It's time for these guys to show up or become 2B
2B Puempel - Pageau - Lazar Snipe and push the pace
4A Prince - Smith - Chiasson/Neil

Could see a rotation of Michalek with different centres until someone shows up to claim LW2A. Could see Prince and Puempel switched up. If Puempel is down in the AHL, I'd switch Ryan to LW until MacArthur is back at least.

Lineups are as such at practice:

Hoffman-Turris-Stone
Ryan-Zibanejad-Lazar
Michalek-Pageau-Chiasson
Prince-Smith-Neil

 

[SensBrawler]

 

[operasen]

Lineups are as such at practice:

Hoffman-Turris-Stone
Ryan-Zibanejad-Lazar
Michalek-Pageau-Chiasson
Prince-Smith-Neil

If Puempel is 13? MacArthur must be under scrutiny. Ryan on the LW should be interesting. I'd be tempted to flip Pageau up with those 2. Zibanejad has some reasonable history with Michalek. Or flip Hoffman and Ryan, but the HoTS line was outstanding against the Habs.

 

[Rodzilla]

Stone took a shot on the wrist and left practice and I am not joking. Garrioch tweeted it... God I hope it's nothing

 

[Holdurbreathe]

I think Prince and Pageau will have good chemistry based on their speed and hockey IQ. But it seems good players seem to have chemistry with anyone they play with. eg. Stone, Alfie...

Always good when one of your centres, Pageau in this case, has the tendency to make other players on their line elevate. His line was one of the best 3rd's in the league second half last year, and already in preseason, Ryan had his best game alongside him.

Zibanejad might lose his ice time in a hurry if he doesn't pick it up.

Top 6 I'd like to eventually see

Hoffman-Turris-Stone
Prince-Pageau-Ryan

This is not directed at your post specifically, just a general comment to people that believe JGP is a top 2 center based on the exhibition games.

JGP plays the game the same way regardless of the time of year, which is simply flat out.

This makes evaluating his performance during the preseason extremely difficult since most of the top six veterans just aren't playing at their maximum level.

The fact is management and coaches seldom make significant lineup decisions based on pre-season and there are good reasons for this approach.

Lineup changes usually occur due to performance concerns over time in the regular season and seldom, if ever, based on preseason.

Players like JGP that rely to on their high paced energy game will generally look better in the pre-season. While we the fans may believe or expect every player to go all out to impress the coach, that simply isn't the case.

Therefore high energy guys can appear to be better than players that were previously slotted above them in the lineup.

However high energy should never be mistaken for high skill IMO.

 

[BrawlFan]

You cant say that they aren't giving Lazar every opportunity to succeed while making Prince earn every minute he will receive.

Obviously lines on this team are quite fluid and Prince should move up during the course of the first few games however playing with Smith and Neil is a tough spot to generate any offence.

Hopefully he plays chippy and gets noticed that way.

 

[BondraTime]

This is not directed at your post specifically, just a general comment to people that believe JGP is a top 2 center based on the exhibition games.

JGP plays the game the same way regardless of the time of year, which is simply flat out.

This makes evaluating his performance during the preseason extremely difficult since most of the top six veterans just aren't playing at their maximum level.

The fact is management and coaches seldom make significant lineup decisions based on pre-season and there are good reasons for this approach.

Lineup changes usually occur due to performance concerns over time in the regular season and seldom, if ever, based on preseason.

Players like JGP that rely to on their high paced energy game will generally look better in the pre-season. While we the fans may believe or expect every player to go all out to impress the coach, that simply isn't the case.

Therefore high energy guys can appear to be better players that were previously slotted above them in the lineup.

However high energy should never be mistaken for high skill IMO.

The same can be said for this. High energy players should never be mistaken for 3rd-4th liners. Pageau was one of the most skilled guys in Binghampton, and is easily one of the more skilled guys I've seen in the Q in the last 5 years.

He has a lot of skill, and has the skill and I.Q to fit in a scoring role if needed. Ideally, he is on your 3rd line.

 

[Micklebot]

Noooooooo!

[Tweet]651057789729656832[/MEDIA]

 

[operasen]

Stone took a shot on the wrist and left practice and I am not joking. Garrioch tweeted it... God I hope it's nothing

so who replaced him? Ryan, Lazar. That with MacArhur would be extremely unfortunate.

 

[benjiv1]

Stone is back.

 

[Micklebot]

so who replaced him? Ryan, Lazar. That with MacArhur would be extremely unfortunate.

Looks like he's back...

 

[operasen]

Stone is back.

Fingers crossed then. That Subban slash still haunts.

 

[Rodzilla]

Fieeeeeew!

 

[Micklebot]

Fieeeeeew!

Took me a second to figure out what this meant...

Whatever you do, don't look it up on urban dictionary (nsfw)

Illestoo, fyi, generally accepted onomatopoeia for a sigh of relief is Phew.

 

[We Want the Cup 2010]

We've seen Zibanejad with Ryan for large parts of last season and they had success when Hoffman was on the line. Hoffman was the speed element that opened it up for the other two. While I understand that may be why they have Lazar there to start, maybe Zib and Ryan just aren't the best fit. Maybe Pageau isn't the answer either, I'd just like to see it if Ryan and Zibanejad gets stale. Gotta give Zibanejad the start there tho, he's earned it.

 

[Very Stable Genius]

There are some very tasty names on waivers today. Too bad our roster is set.

 

[Sens Rule]

I agree completely.

Maybe I should have worded it differently, or gone into a little more detail: if Zibanejad has earned more minutes after 10 games, we should try and accommodate for that. That's what I meant by "up to speed": as in, if he looks like he did during his peak last season.

If Michalek-Pageau-Ryan look like they have ridiculous chemistry after 10 games, and you can't break them up, then just take minutes away from the 4th line and try:

1A line
2A line
2B line
4th line (5-7 mins/night)

I mean, let's propose a hypothetical scenario that the Michalek-Pageau-Ryan line clicks. That's got to be a best case scenario, right? If so, then your lines going into the playoffs look like:
1A: Hoffman-Turris-Stone
2A: Michalek-Pageau-Ryan
2B: MacArthur-Zibanejad-Lazar
4th: some combination of Prince/Smith/Chiasson/Neil/Puempel

... assuming the 2A line has chemistry, that looks really nice come April.

I totally agree. People get focused too much on 2nd line 3rd line.

The best possible thing is to have essentially 3 first lines. Or 3 scoring lines. Or however you want to describe it. If Pageau shows he can be a dominant offensive centre as well as defensively... We have the wingers to make 3 scoring lines and play them similar amounts at ES and go with whatever lines are better in any particular game a bit heavier. You fill out special teams and still have the top minutes to the most effective players.

Stone- Turris are on one of the top PK units and PP units. If we have 3 relatively equal lines it isn't going to see them get less ice time overall if at ES we run 3 top lines.

I think we have the horses at wing. It is all about whether Pageau can be an offensive centre. Right now is as good a time as any to see if he is or not. Zibby is probably going to not be at his best to start the season. (If last year is an indication) Ryan needs to start the year well. Get his comfidence going. It seems an opportune time to see if we can jumble up 3 good 2-way lines.

I like this right now

Hoffman Turris Stone. Possibility it could be a killer line. A true first line. Almost a Pizza line if they play like they did vs the Habs.

Michalek Pageau Ryan. Can Pageau be the playmaker for two talented goal scorers that need a playmaker probably. And a motor to drive them.

MacArthur Zibanejad Lazar/Prince

You have a vet with savvy and playmaking skills for Zibby with MacArthur. You go with Lazar and if he can't find his hands and more offence then you try Prince. If Lazar is not offensively producing he becomes 4th line centre... Where he is an upgrade on Smith in almost every way. If Lazar is good as RW then Prince adds some real offensive skill and a bit of dynamism to the 4th line.

You can mish mash it all year because at forward we have the horses. Will we be 4 lines deep or 3? Up to Puempel, Prince, Lazar, Chiasson.

The forwards are gonna be fine. So much talent. The season lies on the 3-7th defencemen. They are question marks past Methot-Karlsson. They could be very good or very bad. Wideman looked good in preseason. That is going to be the make or break for the team this year. The 2nd and 3rd pairing defence.

 

[benjiv1]

I would be 100% fine with a MacArthur-Zibanejad-Prince line.

 

[Sens Rule]

This is not directed at your post specifically, just a general comment to people that believe JGP is a top 2 center based on the exhibition games.

JGP plays the game the same way regardless of the time of year, which is simply flat out.

This makes evaluating his performance during the preseason extremely difficult since most of the top six veterans just aren't playing at their maximum level.

The fact is management and coaches seldom make significant lineup decisions based on pre-season and there are good reasons for this approach.

Lineup changes usually occur due to performance concerns over time in the regular season and seldom, if ever, based on preseason.

Players like JGP that rely to on their high paced energy game will generally look better in the pre-season. While we the fans may believe or expect every player to go all out to impress the coach, that simply isn't the case.

Therefore high energy guys can appear to be better than players that were previously slotted above them in the lineup.

However high energy should never be mistaken for high skill IMO.

I agree. Except Pageau has not got to play much with high skill players in the NHL. Who is to say he doesn't click with them before we see if he does? Maybe having more skilled and talented linemates sees Pageau use them efficiently and with vision? Definitely worth trying in meaningful games. The downside is not much really... To see. I loved Doug Gilmour. Pageau is Doug Gilmour lite. Once Gilmour got to play with skilled players in a scoring roll he blossomed into a scoring line player. I really want to see Pageau with goal scoring wingers... Before he is more permanently slotted into a third line defensive/energy player role.

 

[Shanny]

There are some very tasty names on waivers today. Too bad our roster is set.

Noticed that as well, I think Max Talbot is an upgrade over Smith and would fit our 4th line quite well, it also doesn't hurt that he's a lefty too. Not sure what his cap hit looks like though.