Devils all-time great line combos
by Sher-Wood on Jul 30, 2010 12:20 PM EDT
25 comments
Do you remember the days before the 2009-2010 season, when Devils players were actually allowed to build chemistry in established line combinations? There have been some great Devils lines, some even with catchy nicknames courtesy of Doc Emrick.
In an effort to distract myself from the current Kovalchuk situation, I was trying to imagine putting together an all-time Devils team built not just from their best players, but from actual line combinations that played together fairly often. After much thought, here is what I came up with:
Line 1: ("The A Line") LW - Elias C - Arnott RW - Sykora
Line 2: ("ZZ Pops") LW - Parise C - Zajac RW - Langenbrunner
Line 3: LW - Pandolfo C - Madden RW - Brylin
Line 4: ("Crash Line") LW - Peluso C - Holik RW - McKay
I obviously opted for a more defensive oriented 3rd line, but I debated having a 3rd scoring line that would feature Richer / Carpenter / Lemieux. Of course I also considered the "EGG Line" of Elias / Gomez / Gionta, but a) I still hate Scott Gomez too much and b) I didn't feel comfortable double-shifting Elias in this hypothetical roster. I think that Kirk Muller and Aaron Broten used to play together, but I'm not sure who completed that line. And I couldn't remember who used to center Rolston and Guerin but I think they were a good combo as well.
Then I got thinking about defensive pairings. This was a bit harder but I ultimately decided on:
D1: Stevens & Rafalski
D2: Niedermayer & White
D3: Driver & Daneyko
This was complicated because I thought that Niedermayer used to play a lot with Stevens too (which would make a clear D1 pairing), but then who could I match up Rafaski with? This in turn led me to settle on White as a partner for Niedermayer, which I'm not thrilled about.
It goes without saying that there's only one choice for Goalie (no, not Corey Schwab).
I'm curious to hear what other people think. I'm sure there are some other great combos I haven't thought of.
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The Kraut Line
Aaron Broten – Kirk Muller – Pat Verbeek
There is nothing quite as satisfying as out running security after you've punched out a Flyers fan!
"I was in the moment, and the moment said smack you." - Bruce Willis
maybe we'll establish a new line this year...
involving a well known Russian..
icwatudidthar
zharkov, the goal scoring mach… oh wait.
I sure hope so
When he played with Elias and Zubrus last year it looked like they started to click … hopefully a Kovy / Arnott / Elias line is history in the making.
hardly all time list
Way to many players havent even been mentioned. Lemieux, Richer, Zelepukin, Verbeek,Gilmore, Mogilny, and there was a year where Semak and Zelepukin were on fire, think it was 93. i’ll have to look that up.
here it is
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992%E2%80%9393_New_Jersey_Devils_season#Player_stats
Semak- 37 goals 42 assists 79 points
Zelepuki- 23 goals 41 assists 64 points
AND
Claude Lemieux 30 goals- 51 assists 81 points
Total 90 goals-134 assists 224 points
PRETTY GOOD ALL TIME LINE
If I recall Semak and Zelepukin were always togeher that year and the other wing changed a bit.
Richer led the team with 38 goals, 3 players over 30 that year..
Agreed that's a great all-time line, but ...
2008-2009 ZZ Pops put up better numbers by 1 point:
Parise – 45 goals, 49 assists, 94 points
Zajac – 20 goals, 42 assists, 62 points
Langs – 29 goals, 40 assists, 69 points
TOTAL 94 goals, 131 assists, 225 points
Although I guess you could argue that this is more Parise dominated whereas Semak, Zelepukin, and Lemiuex were more evenly spread.
Certainly did not want to leave those guys out, I even mentioned Lemieux and Richer. They would have been on 3rd line but I opted for defense not offense.
Now realizing that Verbeek played with Muller and Broten that’s certainly worth noting (can’t find a link with the whole team’s stats). 1987-1988 they put up the following numbers:
Broten – 26 goals, 57 assists, 83 points
Muller – 37 goals, 57 assists, 94 points
Verbeek – 46 goals, 31 assists, 77 points
TOTAL – 109 goals, 145 assists, 254 points. Now that’s one hell of a line!
Check out the Hockey Database for what you are looking for. This link is for the ‘87-’88 season.
"Don't worry about my Cap." - Lou Lamoriello
Well i agree you could make the case but he only had one good year with us. No other real opportunities did you ever get.
by KingHellfire on Jul 30, 2010 5:23 PM EDT up reply actions
Kevin Weekes
Mathew Barnaby to Lyle Odelein: "Cornelius, as we like to call him, gets under your skin. Planet of the Apes. Look at him. Seriously. He looks like Cornelious."
Odelein to Barnaby: "He should take a look at his wife. She's God-awful to look at."
by RolliePollieKovy on Jul 30, 2010 5:40 PM EDT up reply actions
Mike Dunham...
he had a better mask than all of the above..therefore he was obviously the superior goaltender.
"Look at my face. I came here to play a hockey game and look at my face." -Kris Draper
Sean Burke
…. actually won a playoff series for the team (two of them, with some help from Bob Sauve if memory serves). No offense to Clemmer, Weekes, Danis, Vanbiesbrouck, Dunham, Resch, Terreri, or anyone else you care to nominate, but none of them can say the same thing. I think that ought to count for something.
Backup Goalie
I would say that for the period that Terreri was backing up Brodeur that T bone was our best backup.
After that i would go with Billington.
Yann Danis hands down
Mathew Barnaby to Lyle Odelein: "Cornelius, as we like to call him, gets under your skin. Planet of the Apes. Look at him. Seriously. He looks like Cornelious."
Odelein to Barnaby: "He should take a look at his wife. She's God-awful to look at."
by RolliePollieKovy on Jul 30, 2010 6:15 PM EDT reply actions
Which goalie are you taking…….lol
I do think the EGG line should be ahead of either the Madden/Pando/Brylin line or the crash line, either one. Of course Madden and Pando were a great combo no matter who the RW was. I personally thought Brylin was better from the left side than as a right wing.
ZZ Pops is becoming elite, and now it looks like it may enter its final season, it will be interesting who plays alongside them after Jamie likely leaves. The first few names that come to mind include Elias, Clarkson, maybe Palmieri or Zharkov someday too.
All three line combos were dominant, I loved all of them, but Mottau-White is hands down the best duo in Devils history…….
Yankees in baseball, Giants in football and Devils in hockey. It's that simple. I have no off-season.
Also, I think it’s fair to include one of the John MacLean lines, maybe Pat Verbeek, one of those combinations (didn’t Kirk Muller play with them, maybe not both at once?)
Yankees in baseball, Giants in football and Devils in hockey. It's that simple. I have no off-season.
Also glad you brought up the tandem of Elias, Gomer, and Gionta. I was actually considering adding that one before you did good call. Probably a few more lines could be mentioned. Perhaps one day we will be remarking on a the great line of perhaps Kovalchuk, Henrique, Elias. Or maybe by then we have a good young right wing.
by KingHellfire on Jul 31, 2010 12:12 AM EDT up reply actions
Two things: a) I don’t see Henrique as a center. His first priority is scoring goals, and he did at a Taylor Hall pace last year. People are hesistant to call him a future superstar because he was a 3rd round draft pick, but hey, Datsyuk was a 6th rounder and Lundqvist I think was 7th or 8th, that’s not to say nobody else has come out that late, I know there’s more. I do see Henrique as a top 6 forward someday, but as a winger. That would shape up to look like Parise-Zajac-Henrique and Kovy-Josefson-Tedenby, and don’t count Zharkov out either, he could easily be a third liner with Palmieri, etc. At that point, $15M+ of the cap comes off, Rolston, Brodeur and Elias.
I don’t think Elias will be playing much longer either. He’s 34 but has a 40-year old’s body. He’s had a lot of injuries, and you wonder if he would easily be on his way to 1000 points if he stayed healthy.
Yankees in baseball, Giants in football and Devils in hockey. It's that simple. I have no off-season.
No way Henrique is a winger. He takes pride in faceoffs and does a very good job at taking them. Adam is a born center. Theres no place for him on the wing.
Mathew Barnaby to Lyle Odelein: "Cornelius, as we like to call him, gets under your skin. Planet of the Apes. Look at him. Seriously. He looks like Cornelious."
Odelein to Barnaby: "He should take a look at his wife. She's God-awful to look at."
by RolliePollieKovy on Aug 1, 2010 10:50 AM EDT up reply actions
I like the sarcasm Mottau-White best d combo thats a funny one.
by KingHellfire on Jul 31, 2010 12:09 AM EDT up reply actions
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