If you are stopping by hoping to find commentary about the team’s co-captain announcement on Thursday afternoon, you can find a couple of layers of thoughts on that HERE.
Today’s Daily Cup of Joe reasons through options, considers top priority goals and arrives at a preferred set of forward lines for the front part of the season.
Important to note is that line combinations can and will change intermittently when injuries occur, things go stale, Peters looks for balance and/or match ups, etc.
At a basic level, the primary goal of building the forward lines is to win hockey games. But at a level below that and not at all in direct conflict to priority one, if I was Bill Peters I would assemble my initial set of line combinations with a few goals in mind – namely jump starting a couple of things offensively.
Teravainen / Rask / Williams
If I could pick one forward who I would like to see start fast out of the gate, it would be Teuvo Teravainen. Entering the season, I view him as having the widest possible range of results for the 2017-18 season. He has enough skill and offensive zone hockey sense to be among the team’s leading scorers. But thus far in his young NHL career, Teravainen has been unable to find the every-game consistency that generates more than sporadic depth scoring. Teravainen played well in preseason, and much of that was on a line with Justin Williams. I like the idea of playing Williams and Teravainen together early to see if they can find chemistry and help boost Teravainen to the higher end of his possible range for this season. A positive side effect of pairing Teravainen and Williams is that Victor Rask also finds himself in a reasonably favorable situation scoring-wise. He is another player who could use a spark early.
Aho / Staal / Lindholm
My perfect Hurricanes world pre-offseason had that Hurricanes adding a top 6 scoring/playmaking center who could pair with Sebastian Aho and be two-thirds of a top scoring line. With the Hurricanes instead more likely to score enough through balance and a committee, I like the idea of adding Aho to the combination of Jordan Staal and Elias Lindholm with I like very much as two-thirds of a high-end checking line that can score. I think Aho helps significantly with the ‘and can score’ part of the equation. Staal is a tremendous hockey player but is not the pure finisher or playmaker that many other first or second line centers are. Lindholm seems to have pent up scoring potential that is ready to bust loose. In his second year, could heady playmaker Aho be the catalyst that boosts scoring for a line that is first and foremost tasked with stopping the other teams’ best lines?
Skinner /Ryan / Kuokkanen
As much I like Martin Necas, I am on record as thinking that he is the purest young center that the Hurricanes have seen since Eric Staal. Necas could transition to wing and might even be fairly good at it, but his natural place as a pass-first forward with skating ability and vision is that of a playmaking center. Significantly, with a group of centers who lean defense, this is significant. So I give the nod to Kuokkanen. It is unclear what degree of chemistry a set of Jeff Skinner, Derek Ryan and Janne Kuokkanen will find, but I like the idea of getting this combination of skilled players all with finishing ability on the ice in the offensive zone. Skinner has proven to be a one-man force when he is clicking, so even if the other two end up being spectators at times, scoring potential is there. I continue to think that the next leg up for Skinner from being a 50-60-point player to being closer to a point per game comes from the elusive task of finding chemistry with line mates such that he boosts their scoring and vice versa.
Nordstrom / Kruger / Jooris
The addition of Marcus Kruger and Josh Jooris were votes for building a fourth line that was defensively capable enough to sit behind Staal’s line, especially on the road, such that coaches trying to play the match up game have two good checking lines to contend with. From that starting point and expected role for Kruger’s line, I think Jooris is the best fit for what I see as the last forward slot on the right side of this line. As much as I like Brock McGinn’s intensity level and physical play, he can at times lose track of the positioning and situations such that he can be one too many on the same wall and create openings behind him. Because of that, I think the best option out of the gate is to insert Jooris and in the process build the soundest line possible to round out the lineup.
What say you Canes fans?
1) Who votes for Martin Necas over Janne Kuokkanen at least short-term since he might only see a 9-game or less trial?
2) What are your preferred line combinations?
Go Canes!
1. I think Necas gets his 9 games, then goes back to the Czech League. Then it’s Kuokkanen till Stempniak is back. Unless Janne plays so well that it would be Kookoo to send him down.
2. I ike your line combos. It’s a good balance of scoring/defense, and BP ccould always adjust ice time based on which tema we play(play Skinner’s line as a 2B line when he’s hot, and we need to hang 10 on the Pens).
1) Prefer Kuokkanen because I think he is more advance all-around. Though I would like to see the combination of TT/Aho/Necas at some point as I hope that is our first line next season.
2) The combinations listed are strong. But at some point I would like to see:
Kuokkanen/Staal/Williams because Staal and Williams are possession monsters and would create havoc as a pair down low while Kuokkanen seemed to complement both in the short amount of ice time he shared with them during preseason.
Skinner/Rask/Lindholm because as I have mentioned before the three raised each others’ games when combined last year.
Aho/Ryan/Teravainen because as you stated earlier Aho (and the same is true for TT) needs a finisher. While Ryan doesn’t jump out as a power player with a big shot, he has consistently had a high shooting %.
Nordstrom/Kruger/anyone as the fourth line is going to be tenacious every shift.
1) Kuokkanen – Necas should be playing center.
2) Your line combinations are the most balanced and get my vote. Staal / Rask can be interchanged depending on the situation, creating a monster possession line of Turbo/Staal/Willy. Also, although I don’t have a good sample size of watching Jooris, BP comment that he is more skilled than he thought makes him an option on the third line with McGinn on the fourth line. If Necas gets sent back and Kuokkanen doesn’t produce I would anticipate seeing that combination.
1) I vote for Necas over Kuokannen early on, and I would be SHOCKED if this was not the scenario that unfolded. With Necas the organization is quite literally in a time crunch because any time he spends in the pressbox instead of playing top line minutes back with his Czech club to me seems a bit wasteful. So he will probably get his 9 game trial. Furthermore, during that trial why not send Kuokkanen down to Charlotte to get some reps? Then if Stempniak is not ready when Necas has finished 9 games, there will be a chance to select somebody from Charlotte with a few games played track record. If Kuokkanen is going to win the spot and Necas isn’t going to play 10 games until December because he is in the press box a lot, then I think they would have re-assigned Necas already.
2) Terevainen – Staal – Aho is the first line.
Kuokkanen – Rask – Lindholm
Skinner – Ryan – Williams
Nordstrom – Kruger – McGinn
with Necas in I see the lines as
Aho – Staal – Lindholm
Terevainen – Rask – Williams
Skinner – Ryan – Necas
Nord – Krug – Ginner
Finally, I thought Necas was WAY better in his second game at right wing than his first game. While clearly he needs to add strength, he did throw one pretty nice hit on the forecheck, and at least he does not at ALL shy away from physical contact despite giving up like 20 + lbs to almost anyone he goes up against. So I think he will be just fine on the right wing, and because Skinner and Doc are the type of players that really like to move around in the offensive zone and even in the neutral zone, I think Necas will see a lot of time in the middle of the ice on that line even though he might line up on the right of Ryan for faceoff situations. Like i’m trying to say I think that line does a lot of criss-crossing/switching sides so Necas isn’t exactly wasted on the wing with those 2.
I think Kuokkanen is the right choice. I don’t think it is good for either Necas’s development or the team’s start to try Necas on the wing in a regular season game. I had hoped to see Necas center two real NHLers this preseason (Aho and Teravainen who both know the European game?) but I don’t know if that is an experiment you try in the regular season.
I thought Teuvo played his best on Staal’s line with Williams on the other wing. I also thought Kuokkanen was better on Staal’s line with Williams on the other wing.
Do you detect a pattern here? I think Staal and Williams make an excellent duo part of a top line which will enhance the play of the LW. That’s the combo I want to see, although it makes it interesting for Rask’s line – I don’t think Lindholm and Rask have played well together (looking for CT to chime in with fancy stats one way or the other), and a Aho-Rask-Lindholm line doesn’t sound like a line I have seen all preseason or all of last season.
Skinner and Ryan work as a duo until they don’t, whoever is on the RW although someone with speed and physicality (PDG) has been a good complement in the past.
4th line is solid – I didn’t realize that Nordstrom and Kruger go back even further than their Blackhawks’ days. Great chemistry there on that line (and on PK) – and McGinn or Jooris offer different styles on the RW.
In the end, Peters will continue to mix lines around.
Wow.. you nailed it except for Mcguin and Jooris. I like those combinations…. Let’s go canes!