Line Combos: Your lineup/line combo predictions

[AquaticBirdman]

The team will have quite a different look this season. What are your lineup/combo predictions?

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[mpp9]

It'll be interesting to see how KCD is deployed this season. Will it be a shutdown line while Sutter is used more for depth scoring and puck possession?

 

[AquaticBirdman]

Kunitz-Crosby-Dupuis

Bennett-Geno-Neal

Jokinen-Sutter-Kobasew

D'Agostini/Jeffrey-Vitale-Adams

Of course this is me hoping that Glass will somehow get dealt, which is pretty far fetched on my part...

 

[mpp9]

Yeah if the 4th line is going to see ice against good players, then I'd much rather Kobasew get the chance over Glass.

A positive to keeping Nisky is that it makes burying Glass more of a possibility as a cap maneuver.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

Glass-Adams-Glass
Glass-Glass-Glass
Glass-Glass-MacIntyre
Glass-Glass-Adams

Amidoingitright?


Kunitz-Crosby-Dupuis
Bennett-Malkin-Neal
Jokinen-Sutter-D'Agostini/Jeffrey
Adams-Vitale-Kobasew/Glass
Jeffrey/D'Agostini, Glass/Kobasew

 

[Fire Shero*]

With byslma behind the bench:

Koon Crosby Dupuis
Kobasew Malkin Neal
Bennett Sutter Jokinen
Adams Glass D'ago/Kostopolous

 

[AquaticBirdman]

Our 3rd line is gonna be seriously lacking in the grit department unfortunately.

 

[AquaticBirdman]

With byslma behind the bench:

Koon Crosby Dupuis
Kobasew Malkin Neal
Bennett Sutter Jokinen
Adams Glass D'ago/Kostopolous

Kostopolous was signed only to an AHL contract, so we won't be seeing him. Also do you really think that DB would be stupid enough to play Kobasew on the 2nd line wing over Bennett?

 

[Fire Shero*]

Kostopolous was signed only to an AHL contract, so we won't be seeing him. Also do you really think that DB would be stupid enough to play Kobasew on the 2nd line wing over Bennett?

Yes I do, unfortunately.

 

[gordie]

With byslma behind the bench:

Koon Crosby Dupuis
Kobasew Malkin Neal
Bennett Sutter Jokinen
Adams Glass D'ago/Kostopolous

Don't forget to include Chris Conner as an all-world replacement forward in case of injury or Disco Dan just misses having him in his lineup.

 

[End of Line]

Kunitz-Crosby-Dupuis
Bennett-Malkin-Neal
Jokinen-Sutter-D'Agostini
Jeffrey-Vitale-Adams
Glass/Kobasew

 

[orby]

Kunitz-Crosby-Dupuis
Bennett-Malkin-Neal
Jokinen-Sutter-Kobasew
Glass-Adams-Vitale
(Jeffrey/D'Agostini)

 

[Smacker]

Kunitz-Sid-Dupuis
BB-Geno-Neal
Jokinen-Sutter-D'Agostini
Glass/Jeffrey-Vitale-Adams/Kobasew

 

[NatureBoy]

Kunitz-Crosby-Dupuis
Bennett-Malkin-Neal
D´Agostini(Kobasew)-Sutter-Jokinen
Glass-Vitale-Adams
Jeffrey

Kobasew and Jeffrey will be the 13th and 14th forwards, I think they will go with 7 D-Men to begin the season. Not sure yet if they will keep Kobasew, but I guess he has a chance to stick around. If not, next in line could be Kostopoulos, maybe Zolnierczyk, Payerl or Conner.

The 7 D will be:

Letang-Scuderi
Martin-Orpik
Despres-Bortuzzo
Engelland

I would like if Engelland could play games as a 4th line forward, that way he still could fight. His skating is not bad, so maybe he could do it. But there is no way he should play on D instead of Despres and/or Bortuzzo! Dumoulin and Harrington could be close, Mikkelson is there for insurance.

Fleury
Vokoun

That would be my 23-man roster to start the season.....

 

[Shady Machine]

Kunitz-Crosby-Dupuis
Bennett-Malkin-Neal
Jokinen-Sutter-D'Agostini
Glass-Vitale-Adams
Jeffrey-Kobasew

Scuderi-Letang
Orpik-Martin
Despres-Bortuzzo
Engelland

I still think Niskanen gets traded. I just don't know how else they get under the cap. Sure you can bury Glass, but that doesn't completely solve the issue from what I can tell. I suppose you could bury Glass and demote Despres.

 

[Darth Vitale]

Kunitz-Crosby-Dupuis
Bennett-Malkin-Neal
Jokinen-Sutter-Kobasew
Glass-Adams-Vitale
(Jeffrey/D'Agostini)

I think this is correct, unfortunately (Glass, Adams). On the bright side having Bennett on Line 2 most of the year would please the great and powerful Oz.

 

[#66]

What I would kill to see...

Kunitz-Crosby-Bennett... Crosby and Kunitz just work together well. Bennett add skill and poise to the wing that I think Sid has never had.

Jokinen-Malkin-Neal... May have some speed issues but I like that Jokinen can actually play with the puck and dish to the other two. In the end, maybe Kobasew can fit in that LW spot. With Malkin and Neal putting on 300 per, maybe KOBRA can cash in some garbage.

Kobasew-Sutter-Dupuis... OK so we all know that the third line is soft but adding Dupes to it gives it some energy and speed.

Jeffrey/D'Agostini-Vitale-Adams... If the line was Jeffery-Vitale-D'Agostini, it could be a line that pops in a surprising amount of goals.

 

[Shady Machine]

I'd take D'ags on the 3rd line over Kobasew. I think people are overrating him after one pre season game.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

No matter what combination you use, that bottom six looks incredibly soft/non-physical. I also don't know if a guy like Jokinen will even be effective in that role, since he tends to look better when he's on a line with skilled guys, not grinders/defensive minded guys. Overall, I'm just not impressed with the make up of the bottom six. Too little grit/size/physicality, IMO.

I don't even want to discuss the top line because I'm sick and tired of seeing it together ("best line in hockey" ... until the games actually matter). The only line I'm looking forward to seeing this season is the Bennett/Malkin/Neal line, and that's only if Bylsma doesn't go all, well, Byslma on us and remove Bennett in favor of some journeyman grinder.

 

[Shady Machine]

No matter what combination you use, that bottom six looks incredibly soft/non-physical. I also don't know if a guy like Jokinen will even be effective in that role, since he tends to look better when he's on a line with skilled guys, not grinders/defensive minded guys. Overall, I'm just not impressed with the make up of the bottom six. Too little grit/size/physicality, IMO.

I don't even want to discuss the top line because I'm sick and tired of seeing it together ("best line in hockey" ... until the games actually matter). The only line I'm looking forward to seeing this season is the Bennett/Malkin/Neal line, and that's only if Bylsma doesn't go all, well, Byslma on us and remove Bennett in favor of some journeyman grinder.

The 3rd line isn't ideal compared to the style of the previous lines, but that isn't to say it can't be good. Boston, for example, had a 3rd line of Peverly, Kelly, Seguin. That's not exactly smash mouth hockey there. Of course they had a pretty nasty 4th line as well as more grit in the top 6, but you get the point.

Anyway, a 3rd line of Jokinen, Sutter, D'Ags can be a skill line that has defensive responsibility and can provide secondary scoring. With Jokinen feeding Sutter and D'Ags flying around, I see that line being very effective. The problem is that you don't have a ton of size anywhere else in the lineup to make up for the lack of grit on the 3rd line. The 4th line is more of a problem for me.

 

[PensBandwagonerNo272*]

Kunitz-Crosby-Dupuis
Bennett-Malkin-Neal
Jokinen-Sutter-Kobasew
Glass-Adams-Vitale
(Jeffrey/D'Agostini)

This.

D'Agostini will sub into the odd game as the season rolls along and will be the first man in once there is an injury.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

The 3rd line isn't ideal compared to the style of the previous lines, but that isn't to say it can't be good. Boston, for example, had a 3rd line of Peverly, Kelly, Seguin. That's not exactly smash mouth hockey there. Of course they had a pretty nasty 4th line as well as more grit in the top 6, but you get the point.

Anyway, a 3rd line of Jokinen, Sutter, D'Ags can be a skill line that has defensive responsibility and can provide secondary scoring. With Jokinen feeding Sutter and D'Ags flying around, I see that line being very effective. The problem is that you don't have a ton of size anywhere else in the lineup to make up for the lack of grit on the 3rd line. The 4th line is more of a problem for me.

But that's just it, Boston's third line made up for lack of physicality by having actual skill. Those guys were a legitimate scoring threat and could, arguably, be a 2nd line on a lot of teams around the league. Two-thirds of that line are also above average defensively. Sutter's the only guy on the line who you could say the same about.

I don't think the Sutter line (with whatever combination of wingers you put him with) are the scoring threat that the Kelly/Peverly/Seguin line were, so they'd have to make it up somewhere else ... and they simply don't. Defensively? Sutter's good, Jokinen is solid, D'Agostini is meh. And we've already touched on their physical game.

So I don't agree with your comparison because at least that line brought *something* above average to the table to make up for it not being the "prototypical" third line. If the Sutter line could actually boast 3 potential 20 goal scorers, then that might be a fair comparison.

I do agree with you about the fourth line, though. The Pens' fourth line is a joke, IMO, because it doesn't have the pieces you typically want from a fourth line. A lot of that is the club's reliance on keeping guys like Glass/Adams employed, instead of bringing in guys with more size/toughness.

 

[Le Magnifique 66]

I think the start of the season will be

Dupuis-Crosby-Kunitz
Bennett-Malkin-Neal
Jokinen-Sutter-D'Agostini
Adams-Jeffrey-Kobasew

Vitale and Glass the extras, Vitale can be there instead of Jeffrey though

 

[orby]

I think at this point Vitale is a better player than Adams, and having Adams in the lineup while Vitale sits seems like a strange idea. I guess Adams is a pretty good penalty killer but I can't imagine Vitale doesn't have the right skill set for the job, considering he's basically just a faster and more physical version of Adams...

 

[Fordy]

You guys realize Kostopoulos has an AHL only contract right? Barring catastrophe he will not be anywhere near the big club