It’s early so let’s have some fun and overreact to small sample sizes. The goal of this post it to get an idea of what’s been successful so far and what might need to be adjusted. You never want to make full scale conclusions after just three games, but you can start to see where changes might need to be made. The Jackets are 2-1-0 so far, they dismantled the Islanders, then lost big to the Hawks and got outplayed but Bobrovsky’d their way to a win against Carolina. The lines were shaken up against Carolina, but seem to have been put back together ahead of the game on Friday. What lines have been working and where changes might be needed?
Line stats courtesy of the Line Combo tool on
Corsica. All stats are 5 on 5 unless otherwise stated.
First Line
The top line hasn’t quite taken the world by storm like we all expected they would. They were masterful in the first game combing for six points, but since then they have all been held scoreless. Artemi Panarin, brought in to be a goal scorer has yet to score. This is a situation where patience is needed. As a line Panarin, Alexander Wennberg and Cam Atkinson have a 56.67% Corsi. They have been on the ice for one goal for but have an expected goals for of 1.69, which leads the team and ranks 14th in the league among lines who have played at least 10 minutes together. They have suffered from a PDO of 91.67, lowest among the Jackets lines and 86th out of 121 lines in the league.
This line is getting chances, each player on the line has four scoring chances, and Atkinson leads the team with eight shots, they are just not getting the bounces right now. All they need is some puck luck and have a few shots go in and the flood gates will open.
Second Line
The Nick Foligno centre experiment has not gone well for Nick Foligno. Through three games he has the lowest Corsi on the team at 45.12%. He has three points (all assists), which is tied for second on the team with Panarin, so he is at least contributing offensively. Foligno has spent most of his time between two lines, centering Oliver Bjorkstrand and Sonny Milano, and Panarin and Atkinson. Neither of those four players are the strongest defensively putting a lot of burden on Foligno. He was fine with Milano and Bjorkstrand, that line had a 51.22% Corsi, but in nine minutes with the top line it was not good, they had an 18.18% Corsi. It’s best to just keep Wennberg with Panarin and Atkinson and let them figure it out.
Third Line
The third line started off as Matt Calvert-Brandon Dubinsky-Pierre-Luc Dubois, and they were dominate together. In 14:22 together they had a 70.97% Corsi which among lines that have played at least 10 minutes together, ranked fourth in the NHL. With Josh Anderson back he has taken Dubois spot on that line and while they weren’t great in the first game, it’s only one game. There is familiarity between Anderson and Calvert from playing together all of last season, and with Dubinsky there he’s an upgrade on William Karlsson, so this has the potential to be a pretty decent depth line.
Fourth Line
The fourth line was a nice change of pace, physical line with Zac Dalpe, Lukas Sedlak and Markus Hannikainen. Now with Anderson on the third line, the fourth line got a big skill boost, with both Milano and Dubois getting time there. This line is going to have some different looks until Boone Jenner is healthy. Hannikainen and Dalpe will alternate in that spot with the injury. When Boone comes back it opens up a lot of options and creates a ton of flexibility in the line-up.
Boone played with Dubinsky and Atkinson last season. He could slot into that third line in place of Anderson or Calvert. You could start him on the fourth line and ease him back in with Dubois and Sedlak. Maybe he slides over to centre if Foligno continues to have issues. There are a lot of directions John Tortorella could take this. Regardless of how the lines shake out, one thing is clear this a deep forward group. They have a ton of skill up and down the line-up and should be a matchup problem for other teams.
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