Brunette-Kane-Hossa. Kane and Hossa are great together. Brunette is just kind of there..
Sharp-Toews-Stalberg. Really excited for this line. Stalberg creates all sorts of chances with his speed. Kruger has been unable to capitalize on anything with these two but put Toews there and this line becomes lethal.
Bickell-Bolland-Shaw steady third line. Bolland is a great third line center. Bickell has played better lately and Shaw gets to the dirty areas and scores those ugly goals we have needed all year.
Kruger-Mayers-Hayes Defensively responsible. Hayes gives us a physical presence. A strong 4th line.
Keith-Seabrook
Leddy-Oduya
Hjalmarsson-Olsen
(assume Montador is done)
Personally, the Top 2 lines are really interchangable as far as which is first and which is second. I'd expect the Toews line to go up against various scoring lines of our opponents, so it will really be situational. I don't think you move Kane from Center now, nor do you separate Hossa and Kane. Stalberg and Sharp have also been showing good chemistry together, so you keep those two together and add Toews.
Burnette...I'd rather see him on the 4th and Hayes on the 2nd, or even a Morin/Saad (if they get called up) but I see Burno sticking there to start unfortunately.
Personally, the Top 2 lines are really interchangable as far as which is first and which is second. I'd expect the Toews line to go up against various scoring lines of our opponents, so it will really be situational. I don't think you move Kane from Center now, nor do you separate Hossa and Kane. Stalberg and Sharp have also been showing good chemistry together, so you keep those two together and add Toews.
Burnette...I'd rather see him on the 4th and Hayes on the 2nd, or even a Morin/Saad (if they get called up) but I see Burno sticking there to start unfortunately.
This is what I want, but I think Q goes a different route. When I made my lines, I tried to think like Q.
So, judging by what people have said, come playoff time, we could see these lines:
Sharp - Toews - Stĺlberg
Saad - Kane - Hossa
Bickell - Bolland - Shaw
Bollig - Krüger - Mayers
So, judging by what people have said, come playoff time, we could see these lines:
Sharp - Toews - Stĺlberg
Saad - Kane - Hossa
Bickell - Bolland - Shaw
Bollig - Krüger - Mayers
For our forwards. Amirite?
I would say it is right minus Saad and Bruno. Keep the Kane line the same.
We need SOME consistency in the lines and I would hope Q doesn't upset all the lines to get #19 back in the lineup. I like how the Kane line is playing. I would love #16 C the 4th line in the playoffs with the bangers on the wing. If they get caught out there, it won't be as bad of a matchup, #16 has seen these players.
People want to take Brandon Saad and insert him onto the first line for a playoff run against veteran Stanley Cup contending teams. I'm not sure if a 7 game series against the Canucks is the right "on the job training" for a kid who was playing in Juniors this year. Even the AHL is at least a professional league. Saad has no idea what NHL players are like and won't until he plays more than 2 regular season games. No the last 4 games of the row is not a good time to figure that out either. The playoffs are too important to just throw a rookie out there into a major role like that. Brunette won't give us much but he has been there before. He knows the atmosphere and what to expect in the playoffs.
Craig Duininck, Nathan Chiaritti, Adrian Robertson, Alex Basso, Connor Murphy, Anthony DeAngelo.
These are the Defensemen on the Sarnia Sting, the team Saad's team is playing in the OHL playoffs right now. It's great that he's playing well and I'm excited for his future. But the adjustment from playing against those guys to Alexander Edler and Dan Hamhuis isn't going to be instant in a manner of a couple of weeks.
With all this Saad talk I gotta ask: Is Morin dead? I know he had a concussion and he's not yet in AHL beast mode but he knows how to find the back of the net and would be an upgrade next to Kane/Hossa.
With all this Saad talk I gotta ask: Is Morin dead? I know he had a concussion and he's not yet in AHL beast mode but he knows how to find the back of the net and would be an upgrade next to Kane/Hossa.
People want to take Brandon Saad and insert him onto the first line for a playoff run against veteran Stanley Cup contending teams. I'm not sure if a 7 game series against the Canucks is the right "on the job training" for a kid who was playing in Juniors this year. Even the AHL is at least a professional league. Saad has no idea what NHL players are like and won't until he plays more than 2 regular season games. No the last 4 games of the row is not a good time to figure that out either. The playoffs are too important to just throw a rookie out there into a major role like that. Brunette won't give us much but he has been there before. He knows the atmosphere and what to expect in the playoffs.
I get what you're saying...but at the same time I don't think this is a playoffs where the Hawks will go all that deep - and more to the point, I think that with the right tweaking in the off-season they have the potential to be a final-2 contender next year (particularly bearing in mind their play the first half of the year). With that in mind, there actually might be some benefit to him seeing some playoff action this year rather than leaving it until next year.
