Gorilla Crouch

We can assume a couple things: one, if Mike Babcock decides to keep the top line of Zetterberg, Datsyuk and Holmstrom together then it’s a sure bet Franzen, Filppula and Hossa will play together; and two, that the inevitable injuries that occur will give a few other skaters shots at playing on one of the top two lines.

Now what if Babcock decides to break up the top line? Well then the conversation on who fills the 6th forward slot becomes interesting and worth discussing. Babcock has stated in the past that he’d like to have both Datsyuk and Zetterberg center scoring lines and he’s put them on separate lines from time to time. But up until recently he really needed to keep them together. Otherwise the team would struggle to score goals.

The odd man out if they get put on separate lines? That would likely be Tomas Holmstrom. While Homer is a key part of the power play and Babcock has commented on his great ability to go and retrieve pucks on shots that didn’t find their way home, he isn’t a great even-strength player.

Homer at Even-Strength

Games	EV TOI [Rank]	Goals/60 [Rank]	Points/60[Rank]	GF/60[Rank]	GA/60[Rank]	P/M [Rank]
59 [12th]	12.99 [4th]	0.70 [7th]	1.72 [5th]	3.05 [4th]	1.96 [3rd]	+14 [6th]

Holmstrom is on the edge of being a top 6 forward in terms of even-strength production, but this is while playing alongside two of the top 5-10ish forwards in the game right now. Take one of those guys - likely Zetterberg - off that line and Homer’s stats are likely to suffer. When Mike Babcock has split up Z and Datsyuk he’s often bumped Valtteri Filppula up and he’s a good fit in terms of providing two very solid two-way players to compensate for Holmstrom’s limited skating ability. The one downside to doing that is you don’t really have enough offense coming from that line. Filppula’s offensive stats nearly match Holmstrom’s although you can certainly expect Val’s offensive production to continue to climb as he’s only 24 years old.

Now imagine if you kept Fil on Datsyuk’s wing but plugged in Marian Hossa into Homer’s slot? Here is how the even-strength stats look:

Datsyuk’s Line at Even-Strength

Name	Games	EV TOI	Goals/60	Points/60	GFON	GAON	P/M
Pavel Datsyuk	82	14.33	0.92	2.76	4.04	1.84	+43
Marian Hossa*	19	15.47	1.22	2.45	3.47	1.84	+8
Valtteri Filppula	78	13.04	0.83	1.47	2.48	1.59	+15

* - used playoff statistics

Hossa adds half a goal and nearly 0.75 more points than Holmstrom and that’s with much better two-way play. So it might make sense to play Hossa alongside Datsyuk. As far as the second line goes the two locks are Johan Franzen and Henrik Zetterberg. They have demonstrated some pretty obvious chemistry and are both very solid two-way players. Who is most likely to play alongside them in this scenario? Let’s take a look at the even-strength production last season.

Sixth Forward at Even-Strength

Name	Games	EV TOI	Goals/60	Points/60	GFON	GAON	P/M
Mikael Samuelsson	73	12.87	0.45	1.66	2.68	1.34	+21
Dan Cleary	63	11.92	1.20	2.08	3.36	1.92	+18
Tomas Holmstrom	59	12.99	0.70	1.72	3.05	1.96	+14
Jiri Hudler	81	10.33	0.72	1.94	2.58	1.65	+13

In the recent past Mikael Samuelsson was the guy most likely to fill that #6 forward spot. You can understand why Mike Babcock likes him as he has decent size and he’s a defensively-responsible forward at even-strength. But you are looking for a very solid two-way forward [that eliminates Homer and Hudler] and one who can also generate offense [bye bye Sammy] so Dan Cleary looks like your man.

So all of this is a long way of saying I think there’s a good chance we see the following players comprise the scoring lines for the bulk of the season:

Filppula-Datsyuk-Hossa
Franzen-Zetterberg-Cleary

Homer likely gets bumped down to the fourth line but is still a regular contributor on the power play - assuming Mike Babcock breaks up the ZDH line. Who knows, from time to time we might see a new ZDH line: Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Hossa.

Ace of Sports takes a look at NHL09. The NHL video game series is my favorite sports games [followed by NCAA football, never been a big Madden fan] but I don’t buy updates very often as it seems like a bit of a waste of money given how little the rosters tend to turn over year after year. But I think I’ll likely purchase this one. I’ve also added Detroit Red Wings Fan Club to the sidebar under 313 etc…

Dan Cleary Henrik Zetterberg Jiri Hudler Johan Franzen Marian Hossa Mikael Samuelsson Pavel Datsyuk Red Wings Tomas Holmstrom Valtteri Filppula

August 14th, 2008
Categories: Red Wings . Author: Dave

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