[Classic_Sniper]

With the top 2 lines getting shutdown last night and once again getting no run support from the bottom 6, I think now is a good time to evaluate what we have a quarter way into the season. The top 2 lines have done an admirable job and their contribution to the team’s success can’t be overstated.

Unfortunately, we can’t say the same about our bottom 6 who statistically are the worst performing bottom 6 in the league. No other team in the league has received less production from their 3rd and 4th lines. A total of 10 players have made up the bottom 6 this season and in 21 games, they’ve contributed a grand total of 8 goals. However, looking deeper into the numbers, you’ll see that their level of production is even worse than what you might think.


- 10 players have played in our bottom 6 and have scored 8 goals between them
- However, 4 of those goals were assisted by or created by players from the top 6 (Gaudreau, Monahan, Tkachuk)
- So, based on the math, only 4 goals have been scored that was exclusively created by our bottom 2 lines in 21 games, that’s not nearly good enough for 6 roster spots per game with a coach that rolls all 4 lines
- All 30 teams are doubling, tripling or even quadrupling our bottom 6 production
- Probably the saddest stat of all is that 3 of those 4 goals were scored in 1 game against St. Louis, so we've had to rely on the top 2 lines to try to win us 19 of 21 games this season


I don’t know how we can expect this team to be contenders or go deep into the playoffs if this continues, if the top 2 lines cancel each other out in playoffs, how can anyone sit here and be confident that we’ll come out on top against the best teams in the NHL.

I put the onus on Treliving right now. The current 3rd and 4th lines are mostly of his creation and he said himself in the offseason, he was most worried about scoring enough goals. Well, it looks like his fear has become reality. I'm not sure what's available out there, but with the few assets we have left, he’s going to need to fix this issue before the trade deadline and we can only hope that it works out better than the current crop that he and his brains trust hand picked.


*Wow, seems like there’s quite a bit of backlash to my thread. It really was meant as more of an opinion piece with a few interesting stats I found. Apologies for the uproar it caused. Hopefully my main point that our struggling bottom 6 hasn’t been good enough and needs to improve came through.