Malkin on the first line

[Graybeard 0]

According to TSN Therrien is looking at putting his two stars together. Considering that in general they have no chemistry playing together 5 on 5 this will hopefully backfire on them. Malkin has already stated that he doesn't like playing on the wing and that it throws off his whole game. It will also take away what little scoring threat they had on their second line and should take the defensive burden off our boys so they can light em up even more than they already have been.

In my opinion the fact that their coach has let this out in the media so Babcock can prepare for it instead of springing it on him at the opening face off is just more evidence that he is really out of his league. Having the last change, if he had a clue he would have put a checking line out against Pav and Hank and dropped this bombshell on our second line.

[NHLrules? 32]

So they will have one line, and it will get shut down by our best line?

That may be even dumber than the ***** about the ref strategy.

I cant imagine three weak lines would be a good way to come at the wings, especially seeing how it could make their team D even worse.

[KocursRightHand 0]

The guy's legs are toast. I think he's a non-factor and a defensive liability since he doesn't have the energy to back check properly let alone EVERy shift. Still, he's gotta be accounted for. I'm all for it, Michelle...

[NeverForgetMac25 483]

Horrible idea.

The moment that line takes the ice, the Wings will 100% percent be focused on clearing the zone and getting the line change to counter it with ZDH & Lids-Raf. If the Penguins do take advantage of it at some point, look for the Wings to shorten their bench to prevent a poor matchup.

No problem at all for the Wings, it just means less of the 4th line if the Pens capitalize. If they don't the Wings depth will kill them.

[miksteri 55]

or... "Malkin's lazy and he sucks"

[Bad Vlad Forever 1]

Maybe he's putting that out there just to get Babs to adjust his winning formula. Which he won't, because he's actually smart.

[fastballspecial 0]

if their top line is stacked with Hossa - Crosby - Malkin, then yeah, they are something to worry about considering they have last change. this might be the time for Babs to switch up the defensive pairings to get a more reasonable matchup.

Lidstrom - Lilja

Rafalski - Kronwall

Stuart - Lebda

or something along those lines.

OR...

stick with what's been working, get control of the puck and switch lines on the fly to match up. I mean, the time on attack has to be so lopsided, so why wouldn't this work? the Penguins never have the puck!

Edited May 28, 2008 by fastballspecial

[Vincanni 1]

This just seems to be a terrible idea, Michelle's scrambling for answers and all this would do is further expose their team's lack of depth. As dominant as our top line has been they're not the ones scoring the majority of our goals right now against the Pens. The only conceivable reason Michelle would have to put these three together might be as a PP experiment.

[Chase 0]

Yeah not worried about this at all. Bad move IMO by Therrien.

[DYags 0]

So they will have one line, and it will get shut down by our best line?

That may be even dumber than the ***** about the ref strategy.

I cant imagine three weak lines would be a good way to come at the wings, especially seeing how it could make their team D even worse.

lol, yeah I'm happy to see Malkin and Crosby on the top line.. with the way Malkin has been playing defensively (slow and lazy), this should be good news for the Wings.

[Reilly 24]

Well, they're hoping getting home-ice match-ups will help generate offense. This might actually help Hank and Pavel get more scoring chanes as well.

[Dabura 12,207]

Therrien has two options: spread the talent or max it out on one line. There are pros and cons to both. Ultimately, though, I think he'd be much smarter to spread out the attack. All maxing out the first line is going to do is make it easier to counter and contain the Pens' oh-so-explosive stars, as it's one less assignment the Wings have to worry about (i.e., Crosby's line = One assignment. That, I think, is much more favorable than having two high-level assignments divided between two lines.)

I give Babs kudos for essentially calling Therrien on this yesterday when he dismissed the notion that he might split up Hank and Dats. Each of our top three lines as they stand right now can go toe-to-toe against any of the Pens' top three lines. Babs knows it, the Wings know it. Does Therrien know it? He should by the end of the night.

Edited May 28, 2008 by Dabura

[Lidstromrules16 7]

What I love about Babs is his view on matchups. He said in his presser the other day that he thinks sometimes people get too hung up on matchups. He said he thinks it will be nice to be able to just roll the lines and let them go and play, without worrying about the matchups all that much. IMO this is genius. I do understand trying to keep Lids out with the Pens top line though, but thats a no brainer.

[McCartyFanForLife 17]

Basically this means if we stop their top line, we should easily win the game (assuming we find the back of the net). I'm wondering what happens if they still lose after this game. Is he only going to play 2 lines in game 4?

[Bad Vlad Forever 1]

What I love about Babs is his view on matchups. He said in his presser the other day that he thinks sometimes people get too hung up on matchups. He said he thinks it will be nice to be able to just roll the lines and let them go and play, without worrying about the matchups all that much. IMO this is genius. I do understand trying to keep Lids out with the Pens top line though, but thats a no brainer.

Agreed. You can play mix and match / chess games all series long, but at some point, you just have to go out there and skate and hope your team can stay healthy and play their hearts out. That's where the coaches job ends, and the players are accountable for execution.

[up2here 41]

All the talk out of Pittsburgh is about how they have the last change to get Crosby away from Zetterberg. I beleive this hurts what was already a crappy strategy. If Z plays 23 minutes and Draper,who is arguably a better checking center than Hank,plays 17 that takes 2/3 of the game away from Crosby and now Malkin also.

[tipetz22 0]

Sounds like desperation . . .

Therrien worried = line changes = Game 2 = loss

Therrien panic = more line changes = Game 3 = _______

[Lidstromrules16 7]

Sounds like desperation . . .

Therrien worried = line changes = Game 2 = loss

Therrien panic = more line changes = Game 3 = Cupcakes!!!!

in all seriousness though, I wonder if he will go through with it, or juggle them several minutes into the game?

also, this could lead to Detroit dictating the game, if Therrien is obsessed with matchups. If he wants that line against the ZDH line, Babs could play that line less minutes, thus giving less minutes to the Malkinator. IMO, I like the Wings secondary scoring vs. theirs if Malkin is on the first line.

Edited May 28, 2008 by Lidstromrules16

[Dabura 12,207]

Sounds like desperation . . .

Therrien worried = line changes = Game 2 = loss

Therrien panic = more line changes = Game 3 = _______

Profit?

[BlueMonk 102]

I don't know if he'll do it or not, but I think it's worth a try. I mean, one good line scoring a single goal would be an improvement over what they've done with their talent spread out over the first two games.

[jvxp 0]

So they will have one line, and it will get shut down by our best line?

That may be even dumber than the ***** about the ref strategy.

I cant imagine three weak lines would be a good way to come at the wings, especially seeing how it could make their team D even worse.

So true. We don't care what they do. Were up two games to none and they have yet to score. We will keep doing what were doing. Whatever match-ups they do doesn't matter to us.

[Hank 0]

According to TSN Therrien is looking at putting his two stars together. Considering that in general they have no chemistry playing together 5 on 5 this will hopefully backfire on them. Malkin has already stated that he doesn't like playing on the wing and that it throws off his whole game. It will also take away what little scoring threat they had on their second line and should take the defensive burden off our boys so they can light em up even more than they already have been.

In my opinion the fact that their coach has let this out in the media so Babcock can prepare for it instead of springing it on him at the opening face off is just more evidence that he is really out of his league. Having the last change, if he had a clue he would have put a checking line out against Pav and Hank and dropped this bombshell on our second line.

What's next? Putting Garth Snow in for Fleury?

All of this stinks of Terry Murray and the Flyers.

Poor Pennsylvania teams have no answer for Detroit.

[OsGOD 3]

Good for us totally... Malkin blows and he will only handcuff the already non-existent kid

[Opie 308]

To me this is another situation like playing Jose ThreeorFour, dumb move.

You have already singled the guy out for not playing the way you need him, he comes out and admits he is tired and his legs are like flat tires.

What does Therrien do put him up a line, what would Babs do, send him down a line or two.

If the guy is already not playing well enough why put him in a spot where his bad or lackluster performance is going to hurt you even more!!

[Vladimir316 28]

I just read it in the USA Today (Europe has the paper one day later).... It is kindly a bad move, but on the other hand. They have to do something different to make it more difficult for the Wings. Last line-ups didnt work, Wings were to powerfull. Dupuis wasnt that strong on Crosby's line.