Between the Lines: Week Nine

Chris Wassel

2014-12-02

DuncanKeith

The hottest line in the league heading into Week Nine.

This week saw Chicago come back to Earth offensively. The other numbers started to come in and then the weekend numbers were even crazier. Now it is time to go "Between the Lines".

Lead Us Forwards

Andrew Ladd–Bryan Little–Blake Wheeler (Winnipeg) – It seems like every few weeks, these guys crank one out and they had eleven points while on the ice together in Week 8. They usually combine for all their points as they are rarely separated. Bryan Little arguably had the best week of the three with four points but it was the chances he generated that sealed it. Winnipeg needs this line to produce as the Evander Kane line is still a little bit inconsistent.

Justin Abdelkader–Johan Franzen–Gustav Nyquist–Henrik Zetterberg (Detroit) – Oh those four man power play units are so fun when they are clicking. Wait, they played New Jersey last week? That explains their appearance on here. They had nine points combined when on the man advantage but Justin Abdelkader is day-to-day with another injury so maybe Tomas Tatar steps in this week? It might be a good idea to pick him up.

Defend This

T.J. Brodie–Mark Giordano (Calgary) – Again they lead this list with a nice seven point week. Sure the Calgary PDO is somewhere between meteoric and other worldly but no one has to worry about that right now. T.J. Brodie led the team with five points and Mark Giordano cruised in with a couple points. Though Giordano was named defenseman of the month, it has been Brodie who has been the better of the two of late. That top four of Calgary is dynamite when it comes to points so keep playing them while you can. Why stop now?

Duncan Keith–Brent Seabrook (Chicago) – Show me the power play specialists! Okay it was more than that as the duo hit the score sheets for a half-dozen points when together. The defensive part of the list feels a little familiar. The pair combined for five points while together on the ice including a very solid performance in Los Angeles where Chicago looked like the team that won the Stanley Cup two years ago. When that power play frequency is above 55%, expect good things usually. Individually, both had solid weeks with three points each and a combined 8:18 of power play time (both over four minutes). Chicago needs to keep piling up the power plays to benefit this pairing.

Shea Weber–Roman Josi (Nashville) – While we continue the "hey they were right here last week tour", Roman Josi and Shea Weber looked offensively solid and even better in their own end. Weber had a three point week while Josi chipped in two more. This first pairing has to be this effective or very close so that teams stop focusing on their top line which can be keyed on. It is the old keep them honest strategy. Can they keep doing this? They did do it again with the five points combined and they both played over four minutes each on the power play. Nashville is just riding ridiculously high right now. At some point, adversity is likely.

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As always you can follow me @ChrisWasselTHW and thanks for reading. See you next week with four more line combination and three pairings for "Between the Lines".

UPCOMING GAMES

	May 18 - 19:05	TOR	vs	FLA

Starting Goalies

View on GoaliePost App

Top Skater Views

	Players	Team
	DANILA YUROV	MIN
	MIKKO RANTANEN	DAL
	JASON ROBERTSON	DAL
	MARK SCHEIFELE	WPG
	KASPER HALTTUNEN	S.J

Top Goalie Profile Views

	Players	Team
	CONNOR HELLEBUYCK	WPG
	KAREL VEJMELKA	UTA
	LUKAS DOSTAL	ANA
	FILIP GUSTAVSSON	MIN
	JAKE OETTINGER	DAL

LINE COMBOS

	Frequency	ARI Players
	25.8	NICK SCHMALTZ ALEXANDER KERFOOT CLAYTON KELLER
	17.5	DYLAN GUENTHER LAWSON CROUSE LOGAN COOLEY
	17.2	AKU RATY JACK MCBAIN MATIAS MACCELLI

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