Line Combos: CBJ Roster Discussion/Line Combos/Injury Report

stevo61

Registered User
Jul 5, 2011
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Canada
Well, Werenski is one of the best defenseman in the league handling the puck, and plenty of people have issues with Mateychuk playing on the top pairing as is, let alone having to do it on his off side.

Why do people think Werenski couldn’t play on the right side??

Provorov and Christiansen can play RD? Severson LD? And Werenski can’t?
it's not a matter of can and can't it's a matter of putting people in the best position to succeed
 
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DankoCBJ

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Feb 19, 2022
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it's not a matter of can and can't it's a matter of putting people in the best position to succeed

Exactly. Monahan can play LW too but he should play C because that is the best position for him to succeed and help our team. Same goes with defencemen when talking about can LD play right side D or not.
 

Xoggz22

Registered User
Mar 4, 2002
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Columbus, Ohio
I still contend that looking at the "defense" as a whole is still impacted by the forwards responsibilities more than just the "D sucks". We still have young forwards. Their initial move is to go forward. The backcheck isn't always aggressive enough. We still run around in our zone a bit. I do think it's better, but the D we do have isn't good enough to overcome all the mistakes and, to me, makes it look worse than it might be.

I think it was this thread, but you can see the disparity between our home and road records and the only difference on the ice is matchups (sure maybe more lively boards in some places). We don't have the matchups up front yet to squelch the opposition chances. And, again, the D itself isn't built or good enough to shut other teams down with the plethora of mistakes we're seeing in the unit of 5 on the ice.

To me, the problem we have is the money invested in guys that are more like 4/5 on most nights but 3/4 on some nights. I don't want two of them and I think we have that in Provorov and Severson. Neither fits the mold that Gudbranson does so dropping them down the lineup isn't necessarily an improvement (I'm ignoring salaries at the moment but they certainly impact the future of this club). I think the biggest miss we're likely to end up seeing is Jiricek. As a 3rd year 6OA pick I think the expectation was he would be playing top 4 by now. Prior to his trade, I think it's questionable if he's a long term NHL player without improvement. That is a very big miss that creates holes in the organization.

Fill the top pair RHD slot to make that pair ferocious on both ends of the ice and I think you can see improvement on the back end. Get more experience with the system and commitment from the forwards and everyone on the back end will improve (or so it will seem). I think Jake is a great 6/7 guy. Same with Gudbranson and JJ. Harris is a 6/7/8 guy and right now Provo and Severson seem more like 4/5 guys and I do like Fabbro but would think he's be a better 2nd pair RD guy (Mateychuk/Fabbro?). The gap is I don't see any real 2/3 guys on this team. Not yet anyway, or not consistently. Going to be a while before we might get that from the young D so maybe that's the off-season plan, that means hard decisions and still unlikely with Severson/Gudbranson and potentially Fabbro/Provorov.
 

DankoCBJ

Registered User
Feb 19, 2022
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When we are talking about our defence. We should be focusing on our TOP4. That seems obvious but it is especially true because Evason likes to play TOP4 defencemen quite heavy minutes.

It should be only a matter of time before Mateychuk takes LD2 spot behind Werenski, right?

Only the right side is up for grabs.

Werenski - RD1
Mateychuk - RD2

The somewhat easy solution would be to keep Fabbro with Werenski and put Severson with Mateychuk since he has that heavy contract with us.

But that would not be great for this team because we want to keep getting better. Allowing less goals than we are allowing right now.

I would keep Fabbro, but to me he would be a number 4 guy on our defence. To me he is a better top4 guy than Severson because he is a little better defensively. Then I would try to get a great fit to play with Werenski on top pair. Use assets to make a trade and fix our defence.

Future top4 D (next year?)

Werenski - X (trade target)
Mateychuk - Fabbro

Severson can either be a third pair luxury piece if we can afford him or we try to trade him away somehow.
 
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thebus88

19/20 Columbus Blue Jackets: "It Is What It Is"
Sep 27, 2017
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Michigan
That's kind of the nature of having honest differences of opinion.
My point is, even with everyone’s prevailing opinions, I haven’t heard a single reason why Mateychuk would be better off playing on the right side over Werenski.

And no I don’t think the difference between a guy like Mateychuk on the right side is anywhere near the difference between him and Fabbro as a player.
 

stevo61

Registered User
Jul 5, 2011
12,022
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Canada
My point is, even with everyone’s prevailing opinions, I haven’t heard a single reason why Mateychuk would be better off playing on the right side over Werenski.

And no I don’t think the difference between a guy like Mateychuk on the right side is anywhere near the difference between him and Fabbro as a player.
I don't like it because I want Mateychuk playing like Werenski and not trying to hold back because 2 D activating every shift creates chaos on both ends. As Mateychuk matures I want them leading 2 pairs instead of causing 1of them to be more cautious like I fully believe held the Werenski-Jones pair back
 

SteelCityCannon

Registered User
Mar 25, 2017
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Pittsburgh
When we are talking about our defence. We should be focusing on our TOP4. That seems obvious but it is especially true because Evason likes to play TOP4 defencemen quite heavy minutes.

It should be only a matter of time before Mateychuk takes LD2 spot behind Werenski, right?

Only the right side is up for grabs.

Werenski - RD1
Mateychuk - RD2

The somewhat easy solution would be to keep Fabbro with Werenski and put Severson with Mateychuk since he has that heavy contract with us.

But that would not be great for this team because we want to keep getting better. Allowing less goals than we are allowing right now.

I would keep Fabbro, but to me he would be a number 4 guy on our defence. To me he is a better top4 guy than Severson because he is a little better defensively. Then I would try to get a great fit to play with Werenski on top pair. Use assets to make a trade and fix our defence.

Future top4 D (next year?)

Werenski - X (trade target)
Mateychuk - Fabbro

Severson can either be a third pair luxury piece if we can afford him or we try to trade him away somehow.
Agreed on all fronts. Fabbro would be a really good partner for Mateychuk to come in with. He's not a superstar or anything, just a steady Eddy type. Definitely not a Severson.

I feel like we've painted ourselves into a corner. The corner is praying Z-Severson somehow works out.
 
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Aaaarrgghh

Registered User
Jul 17, 2022
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Sometime before the Fabbro claim, I remember an article mentioning that Columbus were interested in Carlo. Maybe they still go after him at the draft?

Defensive top 4 RHDs of course aren't readily available. It might be easier to just get a more defensively oriented LHD (like Miller, Hague or Ferraro) and put Mateychuk or Werenski on the right-hand side.
 

CBJWerenski8

Rest in Peace Johnny
Jun 13, 2009
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Chinakhov has to be a concussion, right? Given the lack of updates and how he was practicing one day and not the next.
 

Indy18

Registered User
Aug 17, 2023
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Chinakhov has to be a concussion, right? Given the lack of updates and how he was practicing one day and not the next.
They always been extremely sensitive when it comes to concussions (WHICH IS GOOD DONT GET ME WRONG) so I am starting to think you are onto something here.
 

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