Game 3 Line Combos

[GMRwings1983 8,804]

Everyone keeps talking about how great Hank's line has been, but if he's not scoring goals, are we really getting the maximum potential out of him by playing him on that line? I don't think we are.

I still say we need to put Pavel and Hank together and lets see how Anaheim handles it. This is where coaching takes over, since there's only a few games to fix things before a team is eliminated.

We can't wait until we're down 3-1 in the series before we start making line changes.

[eva unit zero 271]

Franzen/Zetterberg/Cleary has worked beautifully.

If Draper is coming back into the lineup, then this leaves us ten forwards to make three lines from, with one forward left out.

I would go with the following lines after the Z line:

Holmstrom/Datsyuk/Samuelsson

Hudler/Filppula/Hossa

Helm/Draper/Kopecky

An optional change is to swap Hudler and Cleary, putting Huds in the playmaker position on the top line and allowing Z to take more of a shooter role instead of having to be the playmaker; the line already has Franzen as a shooter and Hudler is as capable a shooter as Cleary, but Hudler is a better playmaker than any forward the Wings have except Datsyuk. Cleary is better defensively, but he's the third best defensive forward on the line and Hudler is decent defensively.

[bonan78 1]

Here's what my initial thought was about the lines for next game:

Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Holmstrom

Hossa-Filppula-Franzen

Hudler-Helm-Cleary

Kopecky-Draper-Samuelsson

Provided Draper is healthy of course. Maltby has been invisible all playoffs, IMO he is a mere shell of his former self. Kopecky hasn't been exactly lighting up the stat sheet either, but at leaast he has been noticably more physical. I've been calling for the ZDH reunion all playoffs, they are the ultimate offensive weapon and have been for a long time. But then I took a look at the numbers and saw what many of you have seen, that the combo of Franzen-Zetterberg-Cleary has been phenomenal at both ends of the ice. So, in an effort to not fix what isn't broken, here's my re-configured lines:

Franzen-Zetterberg-Cleary

Filppula-Datsyuk-Hossa

Hudler-Helm-Holmstrom

Kopecky-Draper-Samuelsson

Or, if Draper can't go, then:

Maltby-Kopecky-Samuelsson

That way, we get the advantage of having 2 capable face-off men on the top 2 lines, especially since we won't have last change on the road, the 3rd and 4th lines have offensive firepower, and we don't have to break up the line that has obviously been our best. I saw Filppula out on the ice with Datsyuk and Hossa in OT yesterday, and we've seen them put Datsyuk and Filppula together in some situations in the regular season. I love having so much depth at forward, now if we only had that luxury on D right now...

[xtrememachine1 795]

I think re-uniting Datsyuk and Zetterberg makes sense for this series. The appeal of putting them on separate lines was that you could shutdown teams that had two good scoring lines like that. However, in this series, its all about the Getzlaf line. Shut him down and the Ducks lose. If Hank and Pavel can shutdown Crosby and Hossa in the Finals last year, they can shutdown the Getzlaf line. Plus, you don't really hurt your depth either because you still have a quality scoring line in Franzen, Hossa and Hudler/Filppula.

I'd be surprised if we didn't see this at some point during this series.

[LidstromIsASuperhero 29]

Here's what my initial thought was about the lines for next game:

Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Holmstrom

Hossa-Filppula-Franzen

Hudler-Helm-Cleary

Kopecky-Draper-Samuelsson

Provided Draper is healthy of course. Maltby has been invisible all playoffs, IMO he is a mere shell of his former self. Kopecky hasn't been exactly lighting up the stat sheet either, but at leaast he has been noticably more physical. I've been calling for the ZDH reunion all playoffs, they are the ultimate offensive weapon and have been for a long time. But then I took a look at the numbers and saw what many of you have seen, that the combo of Franzen-Zetterberg-Cleary has been phenomenal at both ends of the ice. So, in an effort to not fix what isn't broken, here's my re-configured lines:

Franzen-Zetterberg-Cleary

Filppula-Datsyuk-Hossa

Hudler-Helm-Holmstrom

Kopecky-Draper-Samuelsson

Or, if Draper can't go, then:

Maltby-Kopecky-Samuelsson

That way, we get the advantage of having 2 capable face-off men on the top 2 lines, especially since we won't have last change on the road, the 3rd and 4th lines have offensive firepower, and we don't have to break up the line that has obviously been our best. I saw Filppula out on the ice with Datsyuk and Hossa in OT yesterday, and we've seen them put Datsyuk and Filppula together in some situations in the regular season. I love having so much depth at forward, now if we only had that luxury on D right now...

I will second this. I read through the whole thread planning on making a post with a similar angle only to see you beat me to it lol.