Lines, lines, everywhere a line

One of the big storylines of the Canucks’ preseason so far has been various projected line combinations, especially those involving the Sedin twins. For examples, see Jason Botchford’s piece in The Province today on if Mikael Samuelsson or Alex Burrows should play with the Sedins or Matthew Sekeres‘ piece in The Globe and Mail on the same subject. Everyone’s crawling around looking for signs to indicate who the third twin might be this year, and as in the above song, that pursuit is blocking out the larger scenery and breaking our collective mind.

There’s nothing wrong with these kind of pieces; trying to figure out who will start the season with who is a time-honoured tradition, and one that’s vital for success in fantasy hockey pools. It’s also one we’re going to look at here today. In my mind, even more important than the selection of the Sedins’ wingman is who’s on the forward roster, though, and how it’s set up.

What strikes me the most about this roster is the depth. Consider for a moment just the players in camp who could potentially play as top-six forwards: in my books, that list includes the Sedins, Samuelsson, Burrows, Ryan Kesler, Pavol Demitra, Kyle Wellwood, Sergei Shirokov, Cody Hodgson, Steve Bernier, Mason Raymond, Michael Grabner and Mark Parrish. Right there, that includes 13 forwards.

That doesn’t mean all of those guys are going to play on the top two lines, should be on the top two lines or will even make the team. What it does mean is the Canucks have an awful lot of players who could potentially contribute in a scoring role, and head coach Alain Vigneault’s propensity for line-juggling means we may see all of them who make the team playing in that kind of role at some point.

My idea is that you can have more of them than you think. One of the conventional wisdoms in the NHL over the last while has become that your top two lines need to be full of scorers and your third and fourth lines need to be solely composed of grinders and energy guys. I’m not sure that needs to be the case, though. I’ve always been a big proponent of unconventional thinking in other sports, and it can work well in hockey too. Team defence is certainly important, but as Kesler, Wellwood and Burrows demonstrated last year, some of the best defensive forwards on the Canucks can also score. Defensive play is great to have, but if you can have those players putting up offensive numbers as well, that’s even better.

With that in mind, let’s come up with an unconventional 12-man forward lineup.

Line 1: Daniel Sedin, Henrik Sedin, Mikael Samuelsson
Line 2: Kyle Wellwood, Ryan Kesler, Alex Burrows
Line 3: Sergei Shirokov, Cody Hodgson, Pavol Demitra
Line 4: Steve Bernier, Ryan Johnson, Mark Parrish

Power Play 1: Sedin, Sedin, Burrows
Power Play 2: Wellwood, Kesler, Samuelsson

Penalty Kill 1: Burrows, Johnson
Penalty Kill 2: Wellwood, Kesler

The key thing to note here is that this isn’t intended as a prediction of what the Canucks’ lineup will actually look like. Instead, it’s a proposed lineup along unconventional lines. The only forward on it who isn’t there for his offence is Johnson, and he’s selected for his checking, shot-blocking and penalty-killing skills. However, I don’t envision him getting a ton of five-on-five playing time in this system.

This would be a highly modular lineup, with line assignments changing as needed during each game. There are some attractive elements of this base lineup, though. For one thing, every line can contribute offensively. That doesn’t mean there won’t be a focus on defence, though. What I envision here is trying to use Wellwood, Kesler and Burrows in the stereotypical “checking line” role against the opponent’s top line. The usual problem with this kind of line-matching is it results in limited ice time for your stars and more for your grinders. However, those guys are all very talented offensively, so they can control the puck and put up points as well as shutting down the other team’s stars. Additionally, Samuelsson and Burrows are flip-flopped on the power play; this allows Burrows to demonstrate the offensive chemistry he has with the Sedins while still playing on a five-on-five line that can be used in a shutdown role, and it gives Wellwood and Kesler a chance to play with Samuelsson.

Now, you’ve got 60 minutes of ice time to distribute to forwards each night. On most teams, this goes something along the lines of a 20/15/15/10 split. On this team, it would be closer to 20/20/10/10, as the Wellwood/Kesler/Burrows unit would play in both offensive and defensive situations. The last two lines wouldn’t get a ton of ice time, but they would be fresh when called upon and their offensive talents would be extremely useful; many teams would have trouble game-planning against four lines that can score. Moreover, the fourth line as envisioned could also fill a checking role against an opponent’s top line if the second line needs a breather.

In this model, I’d severely limit Johnson’s five-on-five playing time. In fact, I wouldn’t have him play at all five-on-five in the regular shift rotation. It would go something like this:

Sedin/Sedin/Samuelsson
Wellwood/Kesler/Burrows
Shirokov/Hodgson/Demitra
Sedin/Sedin/Samuelsson
Wellwood/Kesler/Burrows
Bernier/Hodgson/Parrish

This plan would keep Johnson fresh for penalty kill situations and ensure that there are players capable of scoring on the ice at all times. It would also give Hodgson more ice time to develop. Johnson would take Hodgson’s place if the fourth line had to be used in a checking role.

There are also options here in case of injuries. We know Demitra’s already going to miss time at the start of the year, and it’s likely that Johnson and Parrish will miss time during the year thanks to age and playing styles. If Johnson’s out of the lineup, Rick Rypien would be an excellent fill-in for that role. With Demitra or Parrish out, Mason Raymond, Jannik Hansen or Michael Grabner could be called up. Particularly with Demitra out, Bernier could shift to the right wing (his natural position) on the third line, and Raymond could play left wing on the fourth line and also take Wellwood’s spot on the second penalty-kill unit. In fact, that lineup’s even better in some ways, so it might work well to test that out early on. If it comes through, Demitra could be given some games once he returns to health and then traded for a draft pick.

One potential flaw in this plan is that it puts a lot of faith in Hodgson and Shirokov, who are untested at the NHL level. However, there’s plenty to be excited about with both of them. As Brian Wawryshyn wrote over at Canucks Corner, Shirokov’s a quality player (even if the Bure comparisons are far-fetched at this point). Sean Zandberg was also impressed with Shirokov’s offensive play in the Canucks’ first preseason game Monday, where he scored both goals in a 2-1 victory. As we’re mostly counting on him for offence in this model, I think he’d do just fine. He’s also competed at a higher level than Hodgson, which Cam Davie wrote could make him a solid choice for the Canucks’ roster.

Meanwhile, we know Hodgson can score; Greg Wyshynski has him projected as a potential Calder Trophy candidate, and so does The Hockey News. He’s also solid defensively; as J.J. Guerrero wrote back in June, Hodgson is projected as a two-way player. That makes him a great fit for this system.

As mentioned above, I doubt the Canucks will choose this philosophy. Vigneault is a defensive coach most of the time, and not a terribly unconventional one. It’s an intriguing idea, though, and one I think could work. What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments below, or send them to me by e-mail, Twitter or Facebook. Also, I’ll be attending the Official Canucks Tweetup at the Hurricane Grill in Yaletown tonight with plenty of other Canucks’ bloggers; stop by and say hi if you’re there! I’m pretty easy to recognize; I have blond hair, blue eyes and a blonde mustache and will be wearing a black leather jacket and a dark red Canucks’ third jersey. Hope to meet some readers tonight!

Tags: Alex Burrows, Cody Hodgson, Daniel Sedin, defensive forwards, forwards, Henrik Sedin, Kyle Wellwood, line combinations, Mark Parrish, Mason Raymond, Mikael Samuelsson, Pavol Demitra, Ryan Johnson, Ryan Kesler, Sergei Shirokov, Steve Bernier, unconventional thinking