Taking a look at the Red Wings’ top line
A top line of Homer, Z and Datsyuk could top the century mark in goals scored
The other day I linked to an NHL Fanhouse article from Jon “J.P.” Press that listed the Zetterberg, Datsyuk and Holmstrom line as one of the top 5 lines in the NHL. I mentioned in my comments on that article that I was going to look at the Z-D-H line’s production while they were actually playing together on one line. They were put together consistently begining on December 18th in a game against Columbus, and played together until Henrik Zetterberg was injured in a game against Calgary on February 11.
So the period of time we’re looking at is just about two months. I used Time On Ice to check the ice time to make sure each player played a significant amount of time on the ice with the other two players - typically at least 8 minutes and often more than 10 minutes.
With that out of the way, here are the point totals for each game over this time period.
Dec 18 - 0 goals, 0 assists
Dec 20 - 0 goals, 2 assists
Dec 22 - 1 goal, 1 assist
Dec 23 - 1 goal, 1 assist
Dec 27 - 1 goal, 1 assist
Dec 28 - 3 goals, 3 assists
Dec 31 - 2 goals, 2 assists
Jan 2 - 1 goal, 2 assists
Jan 4 - 1 goal, 1 assist
Jan 6 - 0 goals, 0 assists
Jan 7 - 1 goal, 1 assist
Jan 11 - 5 goals, 7 assists
Jan 13 - 1 goal, 5 assists
Jan 15 - 1 goal, 2 assists
Jan 17 - 3 goals, 6 assists
Jan 19 - 0 goals, 0 assists
Jan 20 - 0 goals, 0 assists
Jan 26 - 0 goals, 0 assists
Jan 28 - 2 goals, 3 assits
Jan 30 - 2 goals, 2 assists
Feb 2 - 3 goals, 5 assists
Feb 5 - 2 goals, 2 assists
Feb 7 - 3 goals, 3 assists
Feb 8 - 0 goals, 0 assists
Feb 11 - 4 goals, 3 assists
TOTAL: 37 goals, 52 assists, 89 points
AVG: 1.48 goals, 2.08 assists, 3.56 points
One thing to point out is over this stretch Pavel Datsyuk missed three games between January 2 and January 6. But that is still very solid production that would obviously make the line one of the most potent in the NHL but would also allow opponents to focus their top defensive pairings on that line. If they could shut that line down or keep it from being dominant they’d have a shot at winning the game.
Doing a little projection, if Mike Babcock decided to keep this line intact for the entire NHL season, here is how their production might look.
Over 75 games: 111 goals, 156 assists, 267 points
Over 80 games: 118 goals, 166 assists, 284 points
If younger players like Valtteri Filppula, Jiri Hudler or Igor Grigorenko can earn a spot on the second line it makes it very easy to keep the top line together. Also more veteran players like Dan Cleary or Johan Franzen or Mikael Samuelsson could easily make a case to play consistent minutes on the second line. Red Wings coach Mike Babcock knows exactly what he has as far as the top line goes, but the big question is probably which players will make up that second line and will they be effective enough to allow him to keep his top line together.
I’ll take a look at some of the candidates for time on the second line next.
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