Puck-rakers just reported this lineup in today's practice:
Lines:
F1: Nash -- Umberger -- Huselius
F2: Modin -- Novotny -- Murray
F3: Picard -- Peca -- Boll
F4: Chimera -- Brassard -- Voracek
D1: Hejda -- Commodore
D2: Tyutin -- Klesla
D3: Russell -- Backman
G1: Leclaire
G2: Norrena
If true, these foward lines makes no sense to me. None.
I usually agree with most of Hitch's moves but he's got me scratching my head to the point of worn down finger nails on this one.
I know Hitch doesn't want to pair the rookies together which I understand but you can't bury arguably two of your top 4 or 5 skilled players in the bottom of your lineup. Not with the pre-seasons both of these players turned in and not with the offense (or lack thereof) this team produced last season.
Dallas is a very good team but are we trying to beat them or check them to death? Murray and Novotny had good camps but are not, by any stretch, top 6 minute eaters....and Picard on the 3rd line?
I just get the feeling that he's over thinking this one a bit (or over protecting). Let the kids play -- they've earned it in camp and shown they can handle it thus far. They are the ones who will take us to the promise land. Sooner or later they are going to have to take that next step in their development and play against other team's top lines...why not sooner?
Perhaps these line numbers don't mean much besides slapping a number on them and Hitch is going to roll the lines dictated by the game. Puck-rakers stated that they will either play F2 or F4. Its the F4 option that bothers me.
I really believe we need these kids to be scorers for us to take that next step. That isn't going to happen with 4th line minutes. There will be bumps in the road but we all know that.
I'm sure this will be a very popular question today on Hitch's show at 3 p.m. so stay tuned. There's a solid explanation in there I'm sure.
Fire away - what are your thoughts on these lines?
-LTL
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Voracek and Brass to start on the 4th line?
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7 comments:
G2:Labbe ???
Don't you mean Norrena
Much will depend on whether Manny plays on Friday but I have to think these lines were merely to get all the players accustomed to other players they may find themselves playing with. I still would like to see:
Nash Umberger Huselius
Modin Brassard Novotny (read below)
Chimera Peca Voracek
Murray Malhotra Boll
Novotny on the second gives Brassard some faceoff protection andn allows Hitch to split the rookies. Voracek seems to have something with Chimmer for god knows whatever reason - not a match I would think works but it seems to.
If Manny can't go you move Novotny to center on line 4 and play Chimmer on the 2nd for a game with Brassard and Modin. He can handle the minutes. Then put Murray on the 3rd with Peca and Voracek and slide in Picard.
Sorry anonymous.. I C&P'd from Puck-rakers and they had that in there as a joke. It should be Norrena.. will correct.
Glad to have you commenting over here xoggz22 - always loved your posts on HF!
-LTL
Im a little confused about that as well. Im sure we will see about 234234234 different lines from Hitch anyway. But at least he probably has a rational thought as to why he put them there...unlike our last idiotic coach.
Sometime I've been pondering. If this is our best top line:
Nash Umberger Huselius
But, if lining up like this...
Nash Brassard Huselius
Modin Umberger Voracek
makes our top 2 lines better overall, which line up should Hitch go with?
I just have to believe Hitch thinks his top line will be substanially better with Umberger, b/c it makes (on paper anyway) every other line look worse.
Neal's projected top two lines were the lines we started practice with, and frankly played very, very well for us.
Still, the ChimBrasVor line is very, very fast with the skill missing from previous speed lines. I'm going to guess that they'll get played a lot more than previous 4th lines, maybe actual minutes. Of course that time must come from the other lines, but that keeps them fresher for crunch time, and healthier for a long season. And I wonder if he wants to protect Brassard a bit, who has proven injury-prone in the past.
Still, I liked the original lines. They worked. And the fact that Umberger slipped in so easily suggests how much Huselius has brought to this team. Also, I never expected the level of play shown by Novotny in the pre-season. And when we get Torres back . . .
I wonder if Hitchcock is thinking first and foremost about depth. About wearing down other teams, and about minimizing the grind of an NHL season.
Them imagine what might happen when Chimera is replaced by Filatov. Now that would be a scoring line.
why would he play the second best line 4th?
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