Who should center Parise?

Parise-Zajac-Tedenby
Kovi-Elias-Zubrus
Rolston-Josefson-Palmieri
Clarkson-Steckel-Pelley

I would like to say though, whenever Elias and Kovy played together, it didn’t work well. And about breaking up the Zubrus Elias Rolston line, I don’t think that’s a big deal, i’m sure it would only improve with Parise.

Zajac proved this year that he could help Kovy return to form when he went on a torrid second half scoring rampage. At the same time, we all know that Parise and Zajac have worked well together in the past. Beacuse Kovalchuk is usually “the late trailer” in a play, having Zajac set him up will allow Kovy to score more b/c Zajac is better than Elias.

On the flip side, Zach makes his name by getting to the dirty areas and creating opportunities for teammates and himself. Elias is perfect to play with Zach because Patrik draws the defense’s attention whether he has the puck or not, thereby allowing Parise to have more space to operate. While the defense often expects a pass by Zajac, having Elias play with Zach gives the dual threat (by both players) of a pass or well-timed shot.

You can slice and dice this so many ways.

I think this post was on the assumption Kovy and Parise are on different lines.

ok how about:

Parise – Zajac – Kovy
Rolston – Elias – Palmieri
Zubrus – Josefson – Tedenby
Zharkov – Steckel – Clarkson

I think a couple of things come into play here. In no particular order:

• Travis Zajac was a substantially better player with Zach Parise on his wing. Whether this is because their styles mesh well, or even because Zach Parise is a “star maker” and Zajac simply benefits from reflected glory…. Parise and Zajac need to be re-united. It has worked, it isn’t broken…. so there’s no particular reason to “fix” it.

• Patrick Elias is the only “center” on the roster who has gotten anything substantial out of Brian Rolston in the last year. (I use “center” a little loosely, here, because Dainius Zubrus did a lot of the “center” work on the line last year). Unless you find a way to unload Brian Rolston on someone else — or alternately find a way to make Rolston a viable 4th-liner and PP/PK specialist playing six minutes a night at even strength — you need to keep Elias and Rolston together. And if you keep Rolston and Elias together, you almost need to keep Zubrus on that unit to handle some of the face-off duties…. unless you want to throw David Steckel out there for that and then swap him off.

• Jacob Josefson and Mattias Tedenby will likely be given some degree of “protected minutes” this season. If they’re going to get spotted against lesser players as often as a coach can arrange so, this would be a sensible landing point for Ilya Kovalchuk. Sure, the line could fall between “messy” and “debacle” defensively, but there’s going to be a lesser defensive line somewhere in the Top 9 with the players we have.

So this is how I’d fill things out, at least for now:

Parise – Zajac – Palmieri
Kovalchuk – Josefson – Tedenby
Zubrus – Elias – Rolston
Zharkov/PL3 – Steckel – Pelley/Clarkson

….

Yes, I think PL3 may well be around here in some form next season. It’s a one-way contract, so there’s no particular savings by banishing him to Albany again. While his skill-set is very limited, there are situations where you’d like to have him on the ice. At the same time, his ceiling isn’t so high that you’ll be doing the franchise a dis-service by keeping him in the press box most of the year.

It’s fun to come up with line combinations but I can’t get to wrapped up in it. Lines get switched around all the time because of injuries, performance, double shifting or game situations. That said, I like Zajak with Parise.

Barring a trade, as far as forwards I think there is only a few minor questions left open. Will Henrique make the team or play in AHL? (I realize I’m in the minority by saying that he will make the big club). Will the Devs carry 13 or 14 forwards? If 14, who?

That’s about it as far as forwards.

kovi/zajac/palmieri
parise/josefson/tedenby
Zubrus – Elias – Rolston
clarkson/ steckel/ zharkov

fayne/tallinder
larsson/volchenkov
taorminav/ white

The Parise Zajac chemistry is undeniable. For that reason, I think they need to be together.

Rolston is a less talented Luc Robataille. He only tries hard if he “thinks” he’s being respected. Putting him on a line with Elias had that affect immediately last year. So I would pair Rolston and Elias

Kovy… I think he’s still too used to carrying a team after all those years in Atlanta. I think he works better if he thinks “If I dont score, nobody will this shift” rather than “whoa… I have other guys to pass to?” Better to put him with young legs to keep up with him, and feed on his rebounds.

Parise – Zajac – Palmieri

Kovy – Josefson – Tendenby

Rolston – Elias – Zubrus/Clarkson

Zharkov – Steckel – Clarkson/Zubrus

I think there are a lot of good suggestions and rationales here. Some of the themes being repeated are:

(1) Parise and Zajac work exceptionally well together
(2) You could slot Elias in pretty much any position on any line
(3) Kovalchuk, Josefson, and Tedenby all have to be protected to some extent by either playing them with defensively responsible linemates or playing them against weaker competition

I think only acasser mentioned the fact that Kovalchuk eats monster minutes, and it’s also worth mentioning that no coach has ever held him back from playing those minutes. I think, in fact, that the guy NEEDS those minutes (maybe his legs go cold from sitting on the bench) and coaches recognize that he is actually more effective with big minutes than he is with his minutes curtailed.

I’d do the following:

Parise – Zajac – Tedenby
Rolston/Kovy – Elias – Zubrus
Kovy – Josefson – Palmieri
Zharkov/Pelley – Steckel – Clarkson

whereby Kovalchuk takes some of Rolston’s even strength shifts with Elias and Zubrus. This keeps Parise and Zajac together, gives Kovalchuk the big minutes he needs, reduces Rolston’s playing time while still squeezing what you can out of him by playing him with Elias, and leaves the Devils needing to protect only one line (the Kovy-Josefson-Palmieri combination).

And my two cents on the RWers is that Tedenby would work well with Parise and Zajac because despite his size he actually protects and cycles pretty well and has the creative spark that none of the other RWers have. Zajac’s not the best puck-handler or creative passer, and I think putting Palmieri on that line puts too much pressure on Parise to be the primary puck-handler. Tedenby can take some of the focus away from Zach. Palmieri can play with Kovy and Josefson, who can both do the bulk of the puck-handling, and Palmieri would be more free to pounce on rebounds and generate deflections.

I think Zharkov, Steckel, Pelley, and Clarkson all belong on the fourth line and if there were an injury to the top 9 I’d probably be more inclined to call up Henrique rather than promote Zharkov or Clarkson up to the third line.

kovy zajac parise didnt get much playing time but i think the line is stealer offensive powers

Rolston Elias zubrus

Tedenby Josefson Janson cam needs to protect these young sweds so put him with them to protect the future

Zambranski (or how ever its spelt) Steckel pelly