After the first game of the season I’m fairly certain (as certain as you can be after one game) that we’re going to see MacT go down to the kitchen cupboards and come back with twelve hockey cards, a jar of honey, and a blender. Whatever sticks together plays together. Well probably not that severe, but we could be looking at something drastic which affects at least a couple of the three man units.
Penner had a great game on Sunday. He looked quicker, he seems more comfortable in the interviews this year and may be in line for another cameo on the top line. I think we’ll see Penner take a few regular shifts on the top line, and maybe even some first unit PP too. It’s a good bet that MacT won’t want to take him off of the PK given how he played in game 1 so I’m guessing he will end up with a lot of special teams minutes and Cole will take some first line minutes on the first line in games where there are a lot of penalties. Remember how MacT said last year that Penner had to work on his conditioning because he wasn’t used to playing as many minutes as they wanted him to play? Well in game 1 he only played about 15 minutes and was very effective, so they might not want to give him too many minutes lest he become less effective. We’ll see how this all plays out.
We might see Cole playing on the right side with Gagner and Nilsson if he isn’t effective on the top line in the next couple of games. Of course this depends on how well the kids are producing, but if the other lines aren’t working they might get split up anyways to shake up the other lines. Obviously Cogliano would slip down onto the third line and play center between Pisani and Moreau if that happened. This would result in more guys playing in their natural position.
The current roster looks like it has a lot of malleability and can be put together in more than a few ways and still work so its fun to think about. Feel free to leave your own ideas. I’ll wait until the next game before I guess at how we change the powerplay if it isn’t working.
Penner had a great game on Sunday. He looked quicker, he seems more comfortable in the interviews this year and may be in line for another cameo on the top line. I think we’ll see Penner take a few regular shifts on the top line, and maybe even some first unit PP too. It’s a good bet that MacT won’t want to take him off of the PK given how he played in game 1 so I’m guessing he will end up with a lot of special teams minutes and Cole will take some first line minutes on the first line in games where there are a lot of penalties. Remember how MacT said last year that Penner had to work on his conditioning because he wasn’t used to playing as many minutes as they wanted him to play? Well in game 1 he only played about 15 minutes and was very effective, so they might not want to give him too many minutes lest he become less effective. We’ll see how this all plays out.
We might see Cole playing on the right side with Gagner and Nilsson if he isn’t effective on the top line in the next couple of games. Of course this depends on how well the kids are producing, but if the other lines aren’t working they might get split up anyways to shake up the other lines. Obviously Cogliano would slip down onto the third line and play center between Pisani and Moreau if that happened. This would result in more guys playing in their natural position.
The current roster looks like it has a lot of malleability and can be put together in more than a few ways and still work so its fun to think about. Feel free to leave your own ideas. I’ll wait until the next game before I guess at how we change the powerplay if it isn’t working.
1 comment:
I'd second your motion except not to move Cole onto the 2nd line but Penner. If trends persist, then switch Cole and Penner!
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