Hypothetically speaking, you're the coach of the Buffalo Sabres.
How do you adjust the lines to give us the best chance moving forward? Do you keep them the same?
Or do you make some tough decisions?
VHP has been our workhorse line. Is it worth taking one of those three off of that line and moving them down to the second to see if they can get something going?
Perhaps something like (By the way, I'm not sold on doing this either, I'm posting it as a conversation point. Breaking up VHP would possibly destroy any offensive production we've managed to get):
Vanek - Hodgson - Stafford - Stafford has been horrendous, but maybe if he plays with our only real center (at the moment, I think we have good prospects) and our top producing forward he can get some kind of game going.
Pominville - Grigorenko - Ott - Grigs has struggled so far to get going, but he's not going to get much going on poor lines. I thought he had much better moments versus Florida while on the second line than he's had previously, but he couldn't finish. Stafford hasn't helped him much. Maybe having Pominville with him would give him a little juice and a leader on the line. I'm not sure why Stafford wears the "A" to be honest... I've seen very little on the ice and very little in the leadership department from him.
Foligno - Ennis - Ellis - Not a big fan of this line, but Foligno effort has been solid the last few games. He's definitely playing better. Ennis dropping a line could help him out, or hurt him, I have no idea. Ellis... Well because I didn't know who else to put here.
Scott/Gerbe - Hecht - McCormick - Not much to say here.
Then the talk about defensive pairings has to happen as well.
I'm not sure that line changes or shuffling is the major issue on this team, but barring any conversation about some real answers that most of us don't think will happen, this seems like a relevant conversation to have...
Really, I'm just trying to think of ways that this team could improve so my brain doesn't explode. Although changing the lines could potentially make us worse.
How do you adjust the lines to give us the best chance moving forward? Do you keep them the same?
Or do you make some tough decisions?
VHP has been our workhorse line. Is it worth taking one of those three off of that line and moving them down to the second to see if they can get something going?
Perhaps something like (By the way, I'm not sold on doing this either, I'm posting it as a conversation point. Breaking up VHP would possibly destroy any offensive production we've managed to get):
Vanek - Hodgson - Stafford - Stafford has been horrendous, but maybe if he plays with our only real center (at the moment, I think we have good prospects) and our top producing forward he can get some kind of game going.
Pominville - Grigorenko - Ott - Grigs has struggled so far to get going, but he's not going to get much going on poor lines. I thought he had much better moments versus Florida while on the second line than he's had previously, but he couldn't finish. Stafford hasn't helped him much. Maybe having Pominville with him would give him a little juice and a leader on the line. I'm not sure why Stafford wears the "A" to be honest... I've seen very little on the ice and very little in the leadership department from him.
Foligno - Ennis - Ellis - Not a big fan of this line, but Foligno effort has been solid the last few games. He's definitely playing better. Ennis dropping a line could help him out, or hurt him, I have no idea. Ellis... Well because I didn't know who else to put here.
Scott/Gerbe - Hecht - McCormick - Not much to say here.
Then the talk about defensive pairings has to happen as well.
I'm not sure that line changes or shuffling is the major issue on this team, but barring any conversation about some real answers that most of us don't think will happen, this seems like a relevant conversation to have...
Really, I'm just trying to think of ways that this team could improve so my brain doesn't explode. Although changing the lines could potentially make us worse.
