Quoting: JeffW
And the year before the compher jost and wilson line was amazing in the playoffs.. dallas beat them when they were rocking a #3 goalie, no landy, no calvert, no EJ...
The third line is nishcuchkin compher donskoi... that was there 2nd line at the end of the playoffs last year.. itll be more than acceptable this season
The forward depth undoubtedly suffered from injuries which changed things, however, Bednar was already calling 3rd line guys out early in the Arizona series. At that stage we didn't have the gluttony of injuries we suffered against Dallas, but the 3rd line was already dysfunctional then. So whilst it is true that injuries played their part against Dallas, the issues with the 3rd line were already apparent much earlier than that.
For starters Donskoi was playing the worst hockey of his career, just floating around aimlessly and giving the puck away every time he touched it. Namestnikov, who started the round robin on the top line, gradually worked his way down the lineup with increasingly poor showings. Compher was largely anonymous. Jost was ok defensively but brought little with the puck.
Now, I do think these are decent players individually, certainly 3rd line quality. However, as a unit the 3rd line was just very dysfunctional throughout the playoffs, even before the injury-riddled Dallas series. Adding a natural center to that line would do wonders for the chemistry of the line. Compher doesn't necessarily have to be replaced outright, only moved to the wing, with a natural 3C slotting into that role.
Perhaps Sakic is sticking with Compher as a short-term solution before Newhook joins, which would be understandable. But one way or another Sakic needs to be looking at ways to upgrade that part of the roster if we want to be able to match up against the best in the league in a 7 game series. Just look at the two cup finalists last season - Dallas and Tampa, who both had extremely strong depth down the middle. If we can replicate that we'd be able to match them, if not out-match them outright.