Babcock ponders splitting up Zetterberg & Datsyuk

[Konnan511 1,736]

Right. How short-sighted of me.

And you're in Sigma Chi at CMU? I'm in Sigma Tau Gamma, haha.

Haha yes sir. I was on the floor hockey team that just won the IM championships. We do work! Haha.

[YoungGuns1340 1]

As long as splitting them up doesn't have us reverting to that stupid "dump and chase" game we were trying to to play at Pittsburgh, then I dont care either way.

[eva unit zero 271]

The MOST IMPORTANT thing to remember is that Pittsburgh has the last change. So we have to consider that Crosby and Malkin will get matched against our weakest lines, while the Pens' best defensive lines will play against whatever top offensive combos we come up with.

So I present:

Cleary/Zetterberg/Helm

Franzen/Datsyuk/Leino

Hudler/Filppula/Hossa

Abdelkader/Draper/Samuelsson

Lidstrom/Ericsson

Kronwall/Rafalski

Lebda/Stuart

This lineup is strong defensively and features some offense on all lines, so regardless of who Crosby or Malkin is matched against, the Wings should be able to limit the Pens' offense regardless of what the matchup is.

Alternatively, a lineup set much closer to what Babcock has generally used:

Datsyuk/Zetterberg/Cleary

Franzen/Hudler/Hossa

Holmstrom/Filppula/Samuelsson

Helm/Draper/Maltby

[shoe 165]

split them on the regular lines and play them together on the power play or vise versa