Mike Babcock talks Lineups
Babock is bullish on the prospects of Kronner having a breakout season
Helene St. James from the Free Press had a chance to talk with Mike Babcock and here’s what he told her about the pairings he has penciled in prior to training camp.
• An entire line (Kyle Calder, Robert Lang, Todd Bertuzzi) is gone. If the roster stands as it is, does this increase the likelihood you’ll split up Zetterberg and Datsyuk?
“The way I see it now, I see Datsyuk and (Tomas Holmstrom) and a left wing, and Z and (Mikael Samuelsson) and a left wing. I have (Dan) Cleary with Filppula and Draper. I see Kopecky between (Kirk) Maltby and Drake. For the left wings, I have (Johan) Franzen and Hudler there — but who is playing where, I don’t know. And Grigorenko — I don’t have him in there, because I don’t know him. But I hear he is a huge talent.”
So here is how the lines look:
LW - Datsyuk - Homer
LW - Zetterberg - Samuelsson
Cleary - Filppula - Draper
Maltby - Kopecky - Drake
Franzen, Hudler and Grigorenko will compete for those two left wing slots. I’d read somewhere that Kopecky would center the fourth line and that seemed a little strange as Red Wings Central lists him as a winger, as does TSN, while the Red Wings site lists him as a right wing. At any rate, that will be a nice fourth line assuming Drake doesn’t take a bunch of ill-advised penalties as he’s done throughout the bulk of his career.
As far as those top two left wing slots go, I’d guess Franzen starts off with Datsyuk and Homer as putting Hudler and Homer on a line together might make a good offensive line but wouldn’t be the greatest collection of two-way talent. Having Hudler play on Hank’s wing would make a lot of sense and would work out defensively as both Z and Samuelsson are solid 2-way players.
I was way off on some of my projections as I figured there’d be a good chance Babcock would keep Zetterberg and Datsyuk on the top line. That could change of course if the team struggles to score goals, which was the case at the start of last season. Babcock acknowledges this while discussing general planning:
Of course, as Babcock likes to point out, grand schemes often stumble against reality.
At least he can juggle lines with the knowledge that if he needs to jumpstart the team’s scoring he can reunite Datsyuk and Zetterberg. On defense he expects Lidstrom, Rafalski and Kronwall to eat up the bulk of the minutes, with Lilja rouding out the top four. Babcock said he plans on pairing Lidstrom and Rafalski. One thing that was unclear was his comment when St. James asked him about replacing Mathieu Schneider on the power play.
• How do you compensate for the loss of Mathieu Schneider on the power play?
“Rafalski and Kronwall. Now we’ll have a right-hand and left-hand shot in Rafalski and Lidstrom, (respectively), and Kronwall all over the ice. Kronwall really is a dynamic player.”
Does this mean Babcock plans on using three defensemen on the power play? It’s doubtful but it kind of reads that way when he explains who will take Schneider’s spot on the top power play unit. My guess is it’s more likely Kronwall will get some time on the top unit while also playing on the second unit like he did last season.
Another interesting comment is that each of the vets on the team is taking one of the second-year players under their proverbial wings. Datsyuk and Zetterberg are showing Val Filppula the ropes, Dallas Drake is mentoring Tomas Kopecky and Kris Draper is working with Jiri Hudler. I think you can read into some of the pairings (Filppula and Kopecky) in terms of the roles they will play on the team in the future but I wouldn’t read too much into the future role on the team for Hudler based on having Draper as his mentor. The two players couldn’t have more different styles of play unless one of them was a goaltender. Draper’s ability to evade the scoresheet doesn’t count in this regard.
The best news in my opinion is twofold: Babcock expects huge things from Kronwall this season, which would be a pleasant surprise; and the coach feels that a number of younger blueline prospects are knocking on the door and there will be good competition to fill out the 6th and 7th spots. The darkhorse has to be Brad Ference, who looked to be headed directly to Grand Rapids. But he plays the kind of game Babcock likes and would add a third physical d-man [Kronner and Lilja are the other two] to the ranks so he seems to have a decent shot at making the roster.
At a bare minimum as a 6th guy Ference could fill a role as a PK specialist who could clear the front of the crease. That’s an important role and Andreas Lilja might be the only other guy with enough size and physical capability to fill that role. Kronner’s more of an open-ice hitter and doesn’t have ideal size for clearing the crease.
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