One of the biggest hang-ups I have on Torts is the fact that any line of him that isn't "perfect" seem to struggle.
We need a big skilled player for the 3rd line? Preferbly NA'n? What's the cost for a player like that? A Penner? Or a Zajac? A bunch of assets and 5-6m per just to get a lw for your "3rd line"... Without the said player, its like we can't even get a decent shift from our 3rd...
One thing that has been evident since the cap was put in place that the best teams are the teams who manage to get production from a flawed player as if that said player was complete. Detroit is natrually the master of masters on this. They won a cup with a ton of guys who only could do one or two things, but always somehow found a way to put complete lines on the ice (If you play like a Holmström who can't skate to save his life with a Datsyuk you both get the puck up ice and a net presence. I wonder how good of a career Franzen would have had for another organization and so forth. Soft 1-way D's.). But players like Horton and Lucic in Boston are also as good examples as any. Anaheim with its big wingers are also examples of that. Bergeron, Krejci and Marchand (with help from a few others of the like) skates really well and gets the puck up ice. None of them really has any kind of elite top end ability. In the attacking zone, guys like Horton and Lucic thrive. You don't notice it while that much when they are still playing in Boston -- but they would struggle alot more to get involved for weaker teams. I Anaheim they had Andy McDonald, Sami Påhlsson, Todd Marchant and Rob Niedermayer who all skated well and had their strongest ability in just taking the puck up ice, which enabled their heavy wingers of Kunitz, Penner, Perry and co to get up ice. When Penner was moved of McDonald's line, he was never the same player again. If you have the puck in your own end and wants to get it into the attacking zone, Penner sucks. If you want to hunt down D's, Penner sucks. He is only good with the puck under controll in the attacking zone, there he actually is extremely good. We certainly did it with Straka-Nyls-JJ. We did it with Avery-Dubi-JJ.
I think that its nutz to ask for a big, strong, fast, and skilled player for the 3rd line. You can get a small player who is skilled cheap, or a big player who can't skate well cheap. Or a agressive player cheap, if he is not that gifted in other areas.
Torts has been spoiled by having a slew of relativetely cheap all-around guys like Dubinsky and Anisimov and Callahan and co to use on 3rd and 4th lines. So far I've seen Torts ice a good 4th line and I've seen him for one season ice a 1st that overperformed (Dubi-AA-Cally), but besides that, I've not seen him get a good game from a line that wasn't complete basically. Torts is behind this roster. Boyle as the 3rd line center and Halpern as the 4th line center. He is behind the acquisitions of Pyatt and Hamas. All in all, he could look at the line up in June and see what we had and have a say in what we were going to get. Slats definitely not running the roster with an iron hand. I definitely think he is responsible for the lack of 4th line and lack of performance from the 3rd line so far. I think its obvious for everyone after a game or two that a line of Kreider-Boyle-Pyatt are just way to imobile to have success against all teams at least. They are very easy to execute a transition play on, it takes way to long for them to shift direction to be frank.
I get kind of pissed when looking at NJD's roster for example. They should be struggling now. Not making it to the SCF's. But they flank Elias with an ultra small skilled Swede in Tedenby and a AHL stiff in Clarkson and get a complete line of it. They have Gionta as their 3rd line center and a soft 1-way Swede in Josefsson as their 4th line center. Torts would never even look at Tedenby (5'8.5), Gionta (5'7) and Josefsson. They wouldn't be good enough along the boards. Torts couldn't even work with MZA. We need someone who is 6'4 and we get players who are "6'4", and then when we are slow and awful -- its not Torts fault because the players aren't talented enough.
They lack a RH PPQB? Sure, give up a 2nd rounder and get Marek Zidlick. He can score almost 0.5 PPG and be a top 2 defensemen for you all the way SCF's. Another player we wouldn't even consider because he doesn't fit the bill. We have missed a RH PPQB forever, but had we put together a top 1000 list of available candidates I am sure Zidlicky wouldn't even have been on it. He is cut first because he doesn't fit the bill.
NJ has a bunch of half slow flawed bigger players and need someone to get the puck up ice, sure doesn't Brian Gionta has a brother? Ok, he is 5'07 and scored 16 pts in 54 AHL games, but can he get the puck up ice? Well then what's the problem. And they get a 3rd line that can put in a good shift in the AHL.
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