Andrew Ladd – Bryan Little – Blake Wheeler
This line simply seems to work. With Frolik on that line they’re a little too defensive. Excellent blend of size, skill, and speed. If one has an off game like Ladd against the Edmonton Oilers there’s enough talent there to make up for it.
Evander Kane – Mathieu Perreault – Dustin Byfuglien
Kane is simply better with Perreault than Scheifele. They seem to think on the same wavelength. Buff has been used lately as the defensive “high” forward, which is usually the centers job. That worked well on Wednesday against the Oilers. Kane and Perreault are allowed to buzz around the offensive zone without worries about defensive coverage, Buff thinks he’s playing D so that makes him happy and he gets to conserve energy for a late game/4v4 OT push. This line can also be used against top competition at the end of a game. The big man plays poorly when constantly used as a checking winger. His role on this team may be evolving before our eyes.
Adam Lowry – Mark Scheifele – Michael Frolik
Scheifele seems to be a center that opts to shoot first. He’s not as much of a playmaker as we thought he would be, at least not yet. Lowry can feed him pucks well from the boards, and Frolik seems to be good at covering up any mistakes and bailing them out. The Jets don’t have any other winger capable of that role. It’s a good mix of size, board play, shooting ability, and defensive coverage.
Bonus: If Kevin Cheveldayoff can find a decent third line winger to replace Lowry, he can slide down to the 4th line and Jim Slater could then be traded. Lee Stempniak says hello.
Bonus 2: Taters and Buff are both used defensively, but their roles are completely different. Buff is not allowed to go deep in the defensive zone and his line mates seem to be free from any sort of defensive responsibility. Frolik is allowed to go deeper and contribute to the cycle, but needs his line mates to be somewhat responsible.
Has Maurice finally figured out his forward lines? Is this possibly the best top 9 in Jets 2.0 history? Why has the offense been fairly stagnant? Let us know what you think.
