Quote:
Originally Posted by mile
The Avs had Cogliano and Helm on their 4th line. Lightning used Maroon and Bellemare. Every team's 4th line is pretty much grinder/energy guys. These are also the foot soldiers who are more willing to take PK assignments too which is important.
Sutter is all about defining roles for each player and making them feel important, it's probably easier to get more out of your forward group when you're expecting your scorers to score and your checkers to check. Ask everyone to score and you'll start getting players trying to be something that they're not. Rather have guys like Lewis and Rooney on our 4th line than Leivo and Simon who were expected to provide offense - when they didn't produce, they brought nothing to the lineup
Lewis had a nice playoffs. Hope he can bring that again.
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Yup, the purpose of the 4th line isn't to generate offence - any players that can generate offense will move up the roster. The reason good teams use grinders like this is that it wears down the other teams' defense - creating more opportunity for your offensive guys to generate said offense.
I know a lot of fans would rather see young guys getting a chance, but there is a reason all good NHL coaches disagree with you.