First, why is Eberle, our leading scorer by a mile, on the 2nd line?
And secondly, Petrell?
I know Hall and Hemsky are playing alright, but the kid line along with Khabby was why the oilers were such a beast in october/November. Re-unite the kids man
I could understand Smitty playing there to help RNH on the dot. I don't understand the rationale for Petrell being there beyond the fact that he got a couple of rare points recently.
I'm going to let you guys know now if you can't handle the lines that were used in practice then quit watching now. ST and Renney have already said they will be trying different things out down the stretch.
Would you rather not give Petrell a shot only to find out next year that on another team he can play a bigger role than he had here? The guy is a UFA and they need to know if he is a part of this team going forward.
I'm going to let you guys know now if you can't handle the lines that were used in practice then quit watching now. ST and Renney have already said they will be trying different things out down the stretch.
Would you rather not give Petrell a shot only to find out next year that on another team he can play a bigger role than he had here? The guy is a UFA and they need to know if he is a part of this team going forward.
Exactly. He's got a cannon of a shot, uses his size well, is extremely coachable, and produced quite well over in Europe. There's no problem with giving him a chance to take a bigger role here. If he can produce similar to his numbers in Finland, would anyone complain about a 20-25-45 guy with grit on our second line?
I was actually thinking Eager would be a good fit there. Eberle's not a really fast skater, so it might be nice to have a guy with speed AND size of the other wing.
First, why is Eberle, our leading scorer by a mile, on the 2nd line?
And secondly, Petrell?
I know Hall and Hemsky are playing alright, but the kid line along with Khabby was why the oilers were such a beast in october/November. Re-unite the kids man
Hall-RNH-Eberle
MPS-Gagner-Hemsky
It's not smart to play the three kids together. They need to split the three kid and Gagner into pairs, that way it makes it harder for the opposition to defend againt as most teams only have one shut down line. The third player on each line is basically a plug, put whoever you want in there.
I was actually thinking Eager would be a good fit there. Eberle's not a really fast skater, so it might be nice to have a guy with speed AND size of the other wing.
Either/or, wouldn't be surprised to see Ben get put there on Monday for the game against the Ducks. It really is a plug and play system.
Bottom line is Ryan Smyth does not belong on the Eberle-Gags line. Ever since Smyth was inserted on that line, Gagner and Eberle has been ineffective. No chemistry.
Smyth has slowed down big time since December. Petrell has been a horse the last 4-5 games. He handles the puck better than Smyth, skates better and is more physical.
Ryan Smyth belongs on the 3rd line in a defensive role.
Don't mind the experiment at all. I'd much rather see him and Eager than the usual suspects. I'm still annoyed that at no point this year we got to see the 3 Swedes play together, hopefully we get to see it in OKC.
Don't mind the experiment at all. I'd much rather see him and Eager than the usual suspects. I'm still annoyed that at no point this year we got to see the 3 Swedes play together, hopefully we get to see it in OKC.
I think Gregor asked Thompson yesterday when he was on the show if the 3 swedes were going to play together this weekend and he said most likely. If it doesn't happen this weekend then I would assume it will happen in the playoffs.
