I actually don't really want a 4th line that can play. I'm happy with a 4th line that gets minimal time. Make it a PK specialist or two, an enforcer, and a rookie that you're working into the league (rookie could move up and down from spare line as his play warrants). Might help with the budget too.
Think of it this way. You can have 3 lines with about 17 minutes of ES ice time each. Offensive guys can get their 20 min a night with PP time, while the defensive specialists focus on PK. More balance, no one gets overly tired. Give the enough ice time to get a rhythm.
I don't know. From what I've seen, the most successful teams get contribution from all four lines and achieve it through quick, even shifts.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mightyquack
At risk of just reading the stats, it looked like he had/having a better year this year.
The question will be where to fit him in the line up. I'd think he'd have a real shot though, specially if Ryan is moved to the third line RW.
If teemu and koivu don't come back he's got a shot but you have to look at our depth if they do.
RPG, Koivu, Selanne are locks obviously
then you have Palmieri who has all but won a spot, Smith Pelly, same story, Cogliano's going nowhere. beleskey and Bonino have really impressed.
McMillan has to be better than Maroon and Beleseky to even get consideration. I think at this point McMillan is an afterthought.
I actually don't really want a 4th line that can play. I'm happy with a 4th line that gets minimal time. Make it a PK specialist or two, an enforcer, and a rookie that you're working into the league (rookie could move up and down from spare line as his play warrants). Might help with the budget too.
Think of it this way. You can have 3 lines with about 17 minutes of ES ice time each. Offensive guys can get their 20 min a night with PP time, while the defensive specialists focus on PK. More balance, no one gets overly tired. Give the enough ice time to get a rhythm.
That's 51 minutes of ES time. Add in 4-5 combined penalties on special teams and that's a 4th line that literally never steps on the ice together. The enforcer isn't going to be much of a deterrent stapled to the bench, the rookie would be better off in the AHL (especially as the guy you move him down a line for gets a de facto benching, which won't be good for morale). I also don't think the skill in the three lines is balanced enough to warrant even ice time at this point regardless, although I get what you're saying about not wearing people out in theory.
If teemu and koivu don't come back he's got a shot but you have to look at our depth if they do.
RPG, Koivu, Selanne are locks obviously
then you have Palmieri who has all but won a spot, Smith Pelly, same story, Cogliano's going nowhere. beleskey and Bonino have really impressed.
McMillan has to be better than Maroon and Beleseky to even get consideration. I think at this point McMillan is an afterthought.
Obviously there is a lot of depth, as you said it depends if Teemu comes back or not really.
I see McMillan, Maroon, Beleskey all fighting for a spot, hell they might keep McMillan up as a 13th forward rather then sending him back to NHL straight away. Beleksey obviously will probably be in the team, but I'd be hesistant to pencil him in straight away given he hasn't put 2 seasons together yet, granted he did have a shoulder injury at one point.
I've been preaching about Bonino to be our 4th center next year because IMO it allows us the ability to roll 4 consistent lines. Adding a goon who can only fight and sucks at hockey prohibits this. I don't think we need a goon, we need someone who is physical, can fight, and who can play more then 6 mins a game and do a good job. Those are harder to find then you think. That's why thorton got so much from Boston in his extension. Guys like that are hard to find. Personally I want Moen back for that role, but his price tag may prove to expensive. Love this 4th line though: Moen-Bonino-DSP. That line could easily handle 10+ mins a game.
I want DSP on the 3rd line, on this team he's too good for the 4th line...
I'm really interested in seeing if Maroon can break in. He and Beleskey on 4th line with some two-way -center could really bring some scoring depth and energy.
That's 51 minutes of ES time. Add in 4-5 combined penalties on special teams and that's a 4th line that literally never steps on the ice together. The enforcer isn't going to be much of a deterrent stapled to the bench, the rookie would be better off in the AHL (especially as the guy you move him down a line for gets a de facto benching, which won't be good for morale). I also don't think the skill in the three lines is balanced enough to warrant even ice time at this point regardless, although I get what you're saying about not wearing people out in theory.
That's my point. The 4th line gets minimal ice time. The rest is split semi-evenly.
Of course the first line gets slightly more than the 2nd line which gets slightly more than the 3rd. It would really be like 16, 15, 14 or something. There's typically about 10 minutes of special teams play, leaving ~5 minutes for the fourth line. One fourth line guy gets PK time, the rookie might get PK or PP time on the second unit.
If Koivu and Selanne are kept, they will probably be the second line. Ryan and whoever could be the third.
Why all the love for Beleskey? Every time I see him skate I wonder why he's in the NHL. He has terrible hands, and even worse balance. Not big or a particularly solid checker... I just don't see what good he is to us. I will give him credit for his cannon though, too bad he has no poise or accuracy.
Why all the love for Beleskey? Every time I see him skate I wonder why he's in the NHL. He has terrible hands, and even worse balance. Not big or a particularly solid checker... I just don't see what good he is to us. I will give him credit for his cannon though, too bad he has no poise or accuracy.
I think that some people pencil him in next year because he is on the second year of a one-way contract.
Why all the love for Beleskey? Every time I see him skate I wonder why he's in the NHL. He has terrible hands, and even worse balance. Not big or a particularly solid checker... I just don't see what good he is to us. I will give him credit for his cannon though, too bad he has no poise or accuracy.
Hitting and he's the only one that seems interested in standing up for his teammates. I don't really care if he's still here, but I understand why people want him to stay.
Beleskey at the very least is a good 4th liner. If he could grow some hockey sense and learn to get his shot off more effectively then he could be a top 9 player.
BB is on record as wanting three scoring lines. Not much point to trying to discussing anything else.
AS is BM which is why i hate both of them and i know i will probably have to endure 1 more season of this Detroit wanna-be without the skill peewee league crap before they have no choice but to be fired
LOL at BM's Boston quote lets see how this offseason he emulates them
AS is BM which is why i hate both of them and i know i will probably have to endure 1 more season of this Detroit wanna-be without the skill peewee league crap before they have no choice but to be fired
LOL at BM's Boston quote lets see how this offseason he emulates them
None of that changes the fact that team management wants to do it so discussing anything else is the internet equivalent of pissing onto an electric fence.
I wouldn't be surprised if Rakell gets a long look at camp. His skillset could make him ready to make the jump, and playing a bottom six role shouldn't harm his development. Was he drafted by Plymouth?
I don't know if it's been mentioned already or not but in the end of season article on the Ducks website Lubo said he will be coming back next season. So barring any trades our top 5 D are pretty much set.
I don't know if it's been mentioned already or not but in the end of season article on the Ducks website Lubo said he will be coming back next season. So barring any trades our top 5 D are pretty much set.
At least everything that could go wrong hasn't. Maybe we can catch a few more breaks this off season.
again everyone is calling for 3 scoring lines and now it 4 scoring lines
Anything but 2 scoring lines, 1 checking line and 1 energy/goon line that has proven to work. Brainwashed by Murray
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dirk316
AS is BM which is why i hate both of them and i know i will probably have to endure 1 more season of this Detroit wanna-be without the skill peewee league crap before they have no choice but to be fired
LOL at BM's Boston quote lets see how this offseason he emulates them
A couple things on that: we may be quite a few players away from being able to ice three scoring lines, but we are even further away from icing a true and functioning shutdown- and energy fourth line. It's not that much easier to make those types of lines work. Even with the right combination of players (Pahlsson, Moen, Niedermayer) it was a disaster after the cup run. Getting an effective third scoring line certainly isn't an easy task, and takes a little more to make it productive offensively, but there seems to be the illusion that you just throw three players out there that individually are known to be good defensively, and you end up with a better result, which is far from the truth. Simply given the players we have we are closer to having three scoring lines, and have been for a while, actually. One offseason isn't going to change that to the degree you'd like.
Apart from that, Boston's current third line consists of Benoit Pouliot, Chris Kelly and Jordan Caron. Apart from Shawn Thornton, the fourth line has Daniel Paille and Gregory Campbell on it. I don't believe the Bruins themselves (the organisation, not so much the fans) really think of themselves quite the same way you do.
lubo says he played awful this year but hes willing to come back next year.. if we get like 80-90% of the lubo from 2 seasons ago that'd be a big boost to our defense corps
None of that changes the fact that team management wants to do it so discussing anything else is the internet equivalent of pissing onto an electric fence.
Actually BM is talking about replicating Boston so hopefully he goes the opposite of what the head coach wants again. Carlyle wanted a checking line and size BM gave him the opposite
