Quote:
Originally Posted by Goriders
Why bring Pelletier up to play in a checking role? I don’t see him as a checker. I get that you might want to shelter him. But what’s the point other than to give him a bigger paycheque for a bit.
I can see Duehr being put in that role. But Pelletier and Zary don’t seem like 3rd or 4th line guys.
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There is no such thing as a checking role in my opinion.
Everyone in the league needs to be a decent checker, but outside of that:
- Players who get a lot of defensive zone faceoffs benefit from additional space in transition
- Players who get a lot of offensive zone faceoffs will still see lost faceoffs result in needing to check to get the puck back. No one wins all their faceoff clean consistently.
- Players who have east-west skill will have expanded roles (powerplay) while players who don't can still contribute offensively 5v5
So what does it come down to?
"Do your linemates make you better and do you make your linemates better"?
Now when that isn't the case we write off lines as being "checking lines". But good teams don't have one checking line, they probably have four, or three plus one frustrating line precisely because it is lacking in checking.