31 replies to this topic

[Triumph]

i disagree - when zubrus is with them, i've seen plenty of sustained pressure and some good chances.

as said earlier, i could possibly accept:

kovalchuk-zajac-langenbrunner
parise-zubrus-elias

but that's the ONLY change.

rolston has lost the chance for top 6 minutes IMO.

there is sustained pressure and good chances, when they actually manage to enter the zone with the puck, which simply doesn't happen often enough. kovalchuk has 14 shots at ES, elias 9, over the last 7 games. elias only has 1 shot on goal at even strength in the last 3 games. kovalchuk is going to get scoring chances almost regardless of who he plays with, but the kovalchuk-elias combo has really struggled to bring the puck up the ice from the defensive zone, plus elias just keeps losing faceoffs.

i agree that rolston should be out of the top 6.

Edited by Triumph, 22 March 2010 - 01:00 PM.

[sameblood]

Parise NEEDS to be with Zajac.

This has, and will always be, my thinking. They were made to play hockey together. Don't you dare split them up.

[maxpower]

even if Elias-Kovalchuk wasn't working, Elias-Zubrus was. and you isolate the bizarity to one line.

this Rolston-Kovalchuk combo blows on the boards. how is Zajac going to make that any better, is he going to get deep and do all the dirty work? good luck with that, leaving those two back there to play D.

this is Lemaire. it's the same thing as last time. he can't leave better off alone with the lines. he gets into this tinker mode and kills all of the chemistry the team has. Zubrus on the third line *on the wrong side* is retarded. Rolston on the wrong side is retarded, hell, the concept of Rolston itself is retarded

I've had enough of him for 3 lifetimes. hopefully the team can overcome him, because if they lose in the first round to any of that garbage, I never want to see Lemaire again.

Edited by maxpower, 22 March 2010 - 01:36 PM.

[Devils731]

So we've never seen Elias-Parise have really nice chemistry together before? Zajac and Kovalchuk can't possibly have any together?

People complain the lines get changed too much and then also complain when they aren't changed because they aren't working. It's such BS, just say "when the team wins I knew those lines were good and when they lose I knew they needed a change".

Zajac has 2 assists in the last 6 games and is -3. Langenbrunner has 0 points in the last 6 and is -1, Langenbrunner also has 0 shots in the last 2 games. That seems worthy of a shake up to me.

[devilsrule33]

So we've never seen Elias-Parise have really nice chemistry together before? Zajac and Kovalchuk can't possibly have any together?

People complain the lines get changed too much and then also complain when they aren't changed because they aren't working. It's such BS, just say "when the team wins I knew those lines were good and when they lose I knew they needed a change".

Zajac has 2 assists in the last 6 games and is -3. Langenbrunner has 0 points in the last 6 and is -1, Langenbrunner also has 0 shots in the last 2 games. That seems worthy of a shake up to me.

So do you think that demoting Zubrus to the 3rd line and off the PP and replacing him with Rolston and Niedermayer is the answer? Jacques has made some bonehead decisions all year and I think partly has to do with the scoring woes this season. Now it probably isn't fair to put all the blame on Lemaire, but this team might be the lowest scoring playoff team when it is all said and done and are among the worst scoring teams in the entire league. One way or another...the Devils have gone backwards in that regard.

[Martyisth3b3st]

So we've never seen Elias-Parise have really nice chemistry together before? Zajac and Kovalchuk can't possibly have any together?

People complain the lines get changed too much and then also complain when they aren't changed because they aren't working. It's such BS, just say "when the team wins I knew those lines were good and when they lose I knew they needed a change".

Zajac has 2 assists in the last 6 games and is -3. Langenbrunner has 0 points in the last 6 and is -1, Langenbrunner also has 0 shots in the last 2 games. That seems worthy of a shake up to me.

Anything that has Rolston in the top 6 above Zubrus is going to piss people off, rightfully so.

[Devils731]

So do you think that demoting Zubrus to the 3rd line and off the PP and replacing him with Rolston and Niedermayer is the answer? Jacques has made some bonehead decisions all year and I think partly has to do with the scoring woes this season. Now it probably isn't fair to put all the blame on Lemaire, but this team might be the lowest scoring playoff team when it is all said and done and are among the worst scoring teams in the entire league. One way or another...the Devils have gone backwards in that regard.

If things aren't working you have to try new things and things haven't been working. Why would I passionately care about trying Zubrus on the 3rd line for a bit? Or giving Rolston another shot at a top 6 role? These things aren't locked in forever and what was being tried needed to be shaken up. All the top 6 has been struggling so mixing things up again is a good idea, change, any change, often gets people working on a higher level.

[Devils731]

Anything that has Rolston in the top 6 above Zubrus is going to piss people off, rightfully so.

Why? They all played like offensive crap the past few games. Nobody is making any passes, nobody was winning any battles. That's your problem, not the combination of lines.

Rolston-Nieds-Clarkson is one the best 3rd lines in the NHL people were touting, but god forbid it's flipped, and then that's the big issue. Rolston had 4 Shots on goal last game. Zubrus has done that 4 times all year, I think.

Bottom line is the players need to be performing better and then the line combinations wouldn't matter. On the other side, the players aren't playing well and so the line combinations aren't mattering.

[nyrsuck26]

Jacques needs to take a chill pill and stop fvcking with his players' heads by switching the lines every 2 minutes.

[msweet]

Elias and Kovy might be a good choice in 4-4 OT but they will not work 5-5

Elias can't win face-offs often enough and thus they lose the puck and then have to fore-check which neither is particularly good at

Since we all agree that Rolston should not/will not end up in the top 6 (after JL's experiments ends) IMHO we need to decide who is our top LW... and that is Kovlachuk

Zajac is our #1 center so with that thinking our top two lines should look like:

Kovy-Zajac-XXX
Parise-YYY-ZZZ

Now who is YYY determines how the lines go

YYY= Elias or Zubrus (no other choice). I like Elias at center for his vision and passing but as I have sated over and over, Elias can't win face-offs and isn't really strong enough (no ability on the boards) to be a 2nd line center.

so we are left with YYY=Zubrus

so the way I see this coming down when JL moves Rolston back to line 3 (and Lou swallows hard on the $5M for a 3rd line winger)

Kovy-Zajac-Elias
Parise-Zubrus-Langenbrunner (Zubrus=Stasny?)


We have 3 top 6 LW.... not such a terrible problem..one of them has to play RW

I could make an argument for Pelley to play with Kovy on a line, but JL is not doing that. Sometimes when you have a player that bangs and charges he disrupts the defensive flow and makes space for a hot-dog player (kovlachuk)... but that is a short term solution and just won't be tried.

[devlman]

Is it too late to hire Dave Tippett?

[Jerzey Devil]

Keep the lines the way they worked and stop with this rotation in the corner crap. It doesn't create enough chances.