Quote:
Originally Posted by ricardodw
What 4th line goes up against Iginla?
4th line , even in the most rolling 4 lines teams play 10 minutes/game
Canucks had lapierre, Volpati, Wiese and Maholtra playing less than 10 minutes last game.
the only time that AV would have had these slug on against Iginla would be if they got caught on an icing.
You try to figure out how well the Sedins would go against Jackman, Begin and Jones or Stajan??
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I never said those players should necessarily be doing it (although I think Jones and Begin can play that role). I said IDEALLY your 4th line should be able to play against top players and shut them down. Especially when the team is built like the flames with the top-9 forwards all being threats to score. I'd rather have guys like Jones and Begin playing against the Sedins (if they can do it effectively) than wasting the top line players ice-time trying to defend against the other top line.
And to your point, Im pretty sure Malholtra would be playing against most teams top lines (especially with no Kesler) for a few reasons, he is defensively responsible and is a good faceoff man (ie, can keep the puck away from the other team). The only reason a coach loads top line against top line is if the other teams top line doesnt have the ability to play good defense and can be exploited.
Near the end of the season last year Jones was being deployed against top lines and doing it very efectively because he was winning faceoffs, was hard on the puck and was getting under the skin of opposing players. If you bottom line can't do stuff like this what is their value?