Quoting: Pucknak03
I agree with all of this but isn't Backs Lindy Kadri Dube Coleman maybe huberdeau all pk players so lewis would be a scratch fill in player, but heres a proposal what about this for Lucic to manage his minutes a kinda 5 line system to help manage minutes this idea sounds crazy but could work really well Sutter says you have to be able to play your spot to make the team so why not make a offense 4th line with rookies and Lucic because Lucic has played that role before a scoring line so say this line is lucic pelletier ruzicka they play a first line offense style game except they are agianst other teams fourth lines and getting played fourth line minutes so they can basically be a offense line and create a role for these young guys where they can axcel and earn pp time and get good numbers, and then have them basically play half the games as a fourth line then have another fourth line the is mostly scracthed when 1st fourth line is player or filling in other roles in middle six and vise versa, the 2nd fourth line would be a grinder line ruzicka lewis rooney even maybe lucic and you have that line together when your playing a rough team to fight fire with fire, is this a terrible idea? and sorry it was long and tell me if i missed anything?
Yes, absolutely you're singing the same song in my head with regards to the 4th line. Sutter should use the entire 23 Man Roster and be inserting Scratch Players in & out all season if we have the depth, which I believe we do. Against Fast Teams, like the Oilers, go with Speed & Skill on the 4th/Energy Line and against Bigger Teams, like the Predators, go with Size & Strength for more of a Tight Checking Game.
Gotta be careful who we play with Lucic, as he's slow and a liability defensively. Ruzicka would be fine as he'd play C or RW, but both Lucic & Pelletier are LW's, so it would only be one of them on a line with Ruzicka, Lewis likely being the other, like last season (or maybe even Virtanen/Schwindt/Klapka/Duehr/Prospisil if they get called up or make the team). We ideally want 1 of Rooney or Lewis in for the PK and we want to reduce the amount of time our Top Players spend on the PK or Blocking Shots, as this increases the chance of injury. Better to shelter their minutes and keep them fresh for Offensive Duties
PK is part of Backs, Coleman, Lewis & Rooney's main jobs, but Lindy (plays too much PK imo), Dube, Mang, Toff are all decent Penalty Killers as well and from what I've seen so far, so is Jakob Pelletier, while Lucic & Kadri (very little) don't Kill Penalties really at all. Huberdeau hadn't typically been on FLA's PK till this past season, when he became a big part of it. Again, we really don't want our $10.5mil Star Blocking Slap Shots