No offense to Carson, be he has nowhere near the heart or desire of Mike Richards at 17. Richie had that attitude of always playing every shift hard and going through a brick wall to make plays happen. Rehkopf on the other hand is happy on the perimeter and relies on others to get the play to come to him... he's got a deadly shot once this occurs. Unfortunately this style of play embodies the type of player that becomes invisible in the playoffs. You need to want it enough to make your own luck. I'm not seeing that night in night out, much less shift by shift from Carson.
Never said Rehkopf was as good as Richards. We haven’t had a Richards, since Richards. Period.
That being said, Rehkopf is good. Damn good. IMO (don’t know how much weight that carries. Lol), he’s good enough to be a third on the second line.
In the 03 playoffs, DeBoer often put 16 year old McGrath on the top line with Roy and Campbell. Sure Clarkson spent time there two. But McGrath was good enough to be a third on that line. If you remember, as good as McGrath was and eventually became, he couldn’t lace Richards’ skates either. Initially, Kanko played on that top line and it was the best line in the league. Went to the all star game as a line and everything. But DeBoer changed it up putting Kanko beside Richards to strengthen the second line.
If we want to spread scoring throughout the top three lines, the best way to do it is by having lines with two higher end players and a good third to complete the line. Especially on the top two lines. Martin is a good third on one line. Ditto Rehkopf on another.
If we want a strong third line, we have to put some quality on it. Based on their play of late, Valade and Sop would make up two thirds of a dangerous third line vs other team’s third lines.
I suggested bringing in another very good to higher end forward and maybe an inexpensive veteran forward to play on the third line.
If, for example, we were to bring in, say, a high end RW, (Winterton?). I play him on the 2nd line with Arcuri on the left side and probably try Rehkopf in the middle. Then bring in an inexpensive center (Michaud?) for the 3rd line.
The top nine could look something like this:
Martin. Pinelli. Mesar.
Arcuri. Rehkopf. Winterton.
Sop. Michaud. Valade.
Hey, those combinations are just examples. (Mix and match Pinelli, Arcuri, Mesar and Winterton if you will). But nobody would be expecting Rehkopf to carry that 2nd line. He’d have two high end line mates. Ditto Martin on line one.
And of course, if we were to bring in a high end center, then Rehkopf drops to third line LW with Valade RW on line two. And who knows, perhaps Mesar gets a try at second line center. Dennis would have time to experiment to get the right combos together.
Hey, one of the more common complaints on here during our mediocre period this year was that Rehkopf was buried on the third line only to be brought up to the top six, and often the top line, when the going got tough. People wondered why he didn’t play top six from the opening face off. Once he was elevated onto the top six, we had better results.
