Time For A REAL Third Line

I would be okay with a Avery-Christensen-MZA line, and when Wolski comes back he can be slotted in as well.

Hopefully in a year or two, the three lines you mentioned are kept in tact (maybe Deveaux or Hagelin replacing Feds), and we can put together a third line of Kreider-Bourque-Thomas, or something to that extent.

I’ve been thinking the very same thing about our third line.

Prust isn’t playing nearly as smart or as aggressive as last year. He’s making the case for an Avery promotion very strong.

Boyle is doing the better job of the three but he doesn’t have the wings to set him up so forget about him scoring any goals this year.

Feds is playing average at best.

I didn’t vote because aside from clips, I know absolutely nothing about Johnathan Audy-Marchessault.

I also don’t think MZA is our solution AT ALL. No diss on him, but we simply aren’t playing strong enough to add another floater to the lineup.

Look, Hagelin isn’t the answer yet either. We can bring him up, but mark my words we’ll be having this same conversation if we do.

Therefore, I’d go Avery, Christensen, Boyle.

Something like that…

Right now we don’t have 3rd/4th lines… we have just a bottom 6-8… and i say that because we never know when they are going to play and how much…

I truly believe in having specific duties delegated to all the lines… honestly the number of the line doesn’t matter you could technically put gaborik on the 4th line and say that it’s our scoring line and play them 25 minutes a game…

that being said we need:

-a scoring line
      the line that takes on the tough defensive competition most of the time and it’s primary job is to score

-a secondary scoring line
     the line that is a hybrid of scoring and defense, not quite pure offense but not quite purely defense, a happy medium of both

-a defensive line
     the main purpose of this line is the take the tough defensive zone face-offs and shut down the opposing teams best line, also killing penalties

-an energy line
     fast, gritty, in your face, checking line, they are going hit everything that moves, fight if need be and just fore-check like mother fuckers…

Taking only the players that are on the roster now…

Stepan/Richards/Gaborik

- than line gives you the pure offense and also stepan brings some defensive responsibility

Dubi/AA/Cally

- this line brings the defense and the offense, can shut down the opposition and can make things happen offensively… they are the most well rounded group…

Fedetenko/Boyle/Prust

-all three of those players have a higher defensive ability than offensive ability, Fedetenko is no longer the offensive weapon he once was… Boyle’s a good face off guy and prust gives them the speed to force the issue on the fore-check…

Lastly we don’t have the guys to put this 4th line together… we don’t have a true energy line…

Avery is the only remaining player on our roster that fits the energy line ability…

Avery, Hagelin, Bourque are all players that would fit that energy line void… however they aren’t on the team except for avery…

What determines the lines is how you use them… you could say that your pk line is your 4th line and energy is 3rd… what determines what number line they are is their minutes… if you get the most minutes on a normal night (not 20 minutes of PK) the top minute line is the 1st line ect ect…

right now we are waiting on the guys to be ready to fill the roles…

I still don’t think zucc is ever going to play for any extended period of time as a NYR…

under Renney there was always an easily distinguishable 4th line, which went out and provided forechecking, speed, grit, and ‘the odd tussle’ as Don Cherry would say.

under Torts it seems like the fourth line is only for players who are undergoing punishment.

As far as personnel, I agree that Boyle-Feds-Prust are not operating anywhere near the effectiveness of last year’s level. Why that is I’m not sure…I think Prust is fighting an injury though. He seems off.

Torts does not like Zuccarello; perhaps he thinks he’s just too small to trust out there.

Either way he keeps giving a roster spot to EC, and that isn’t likely to change unless we hit a bigtime skid. Then anything’s possible.

I’m more concerned with the power play.

If you send Deveaux down, you put Prust back in an enforcer role. You can say fighting is done, but it’s not. Without a guy like Deveaux, you’ve got Prust and Avery answering the bell against every heavyweight who comes looking. Both players can handle themselves (Prust better then Aves) but they’re not heavyweights. You get stuff like Knopka just leaving on Aves up in Ottawa.

The fourth line shouldn’t be making or breaking this team. The only reason it sometimes appears that way, is because Torts has nothing his gameplan other then shuffling the lines when we hit a bump in the road. We’ve gotta quit worrying so much about who’s gonna play 5 mins a night, and start figuring out why we can’t get things done when EVERYTHING doesn’t fall into place perfectly for us.