Gorilla Crouch

No, I’m not talking about the Detroit Lions’ offensive line, or the over under on the number of games the Leos will win this season. Behind the Net labeled the Anaheim checking line of Sammy Pahlsson, Travis Moen and Rob Niedermayer as the nothing line. The idea behind this label was that they could shut down the opposition, which is obviously the goal of a checking line. But it turns out they also have no offensive skill to speak of, meaning absolutely nothing happens when they are on the ice.

A rare sight: the Ducks’ 3rd line celebrates a goal

Thrilling, yes? Well, if you keep in mind that the third line is traditionally out there as a checking line against the best offensive talent the opposition has, then it sure can be in a security blanket sort of way. With Mike Babcock announcing that he’s likely to put Valtteri Filppula on a line with Dan Cleary and Mikael Samuelsson, the Red Wings look to have a line that should be able to replicate the defensive prowess of Anaheim’s checking line that was so successful in the 2006-07 regular season and playoffs.


This picture has no relevance to the topic. But when you
find a picture of Val Filppula as a pimp and Kyle Quincey as
a cowboy you can’t really pass that up.

First, let’s take a look at the production of the Anaheim version of the Nothing Line.

2006-07 Regular Season

Anaheim Nothing Line

Name	Games	Mins	Q Comp	Q-Rank	GF/60	GA/60
Pahlsson	82	11.61	0.145	1	2.08	2.39
Niedermayer	82	11.63	0.14	2	1.82	2.51
Moen	82	11.51	0.136	3	1.91	2.35

Now the three guys Babcock suggested he’d put together on the third line haven’t played together consistently just yet. So there’s always the question of how well they’ll actually play. So this is more an effort to take a look at how they might perform as a line. Each of these guys has gotten time on scoring lines so their offensive stats look better than they would on the third line. Take a look:

2007-08 Regular Season

Detroit’s Third Line

Name	Games	Mins	Q Comp	Q-Rank	GF/60	GA/60
Cleary	63	11.92	0.05	5	3.36	1.92
Samuelsson	73	12.87	0.04	6	2.68	1.34
Filppula	78	13.04	0	9	2.48	1.59

A couple things stand out. First, the quality of competition isn’t as consistently high as Anaheim’s nothing line. That’s due to the fact Anaheim always wants to match their checking line up against the opposition’s best line. Mike Babcock hasn’t been overly concerned with matching lines in order to get his checking line out on the ice. Perhaps that will change. The other thing that stands out is the offensive production I mentioned above. The Red Wings players average just under 3 goals per 60 minutes but that is due to playing on scoring lines with some of Detroit’s most skilled players.


Filppula to the kid: no, you can’t pee into the Stanley Cup.
Who do you think you are, Kris Draper’s kid?

Anaheim’s checking line looked even more stingy during the regular season this past year before struggling in the playoffs. Let’s take a look at their 2007-08 performance.

2007-08 Regular Season

Anaheim’s Nothing Line

Name	Games	Mins	Q Comp	Q-Rank	GF/60	GA/60
Pahlsson	56	13.15	0.18	1	1.22	1.71
Niedermayer	78	12.42	0.17	2	1.05	1.42
Moen	77	12.71	0.16	3	0.80	1.35

You can see once again that this line generates no offense - an average of 1.02 goals per 60 minutes. But they also hold the top scoring lines to less than 1.50 goals/60 minutes. Let’s take a look at how Detroit’s new third line did during the playoffs.

2007-08 Playoffs

Detroit’s Third Line

Name	Games	Mins	Q Comp	Q-Rank	GF/60	GA/60
Cleary	21	12.26	0.16	2	1.16	1.40
Samuelsson	21	13.11	0.15	3	3.92	2.40
Filppula	21	13.43	0.04	7	2.55	1.70

You can see Cleary and Sameulsson’s competition level increase in the quality of competition rankings. Based on my limited look at these stats they seem to be most accurate for teams like Anaheim that have true checking lines. Detroit doesn’t so they aren’t quite as accurate for the Red Wings.


Samuelsson and Cleary keep Brenden Morrow company

With Mike Babcock suggesting he’ll put Mikael Samuelsson and Dan Cleary on the third line that will be centered by Valtteri Filppula, there are a few questions:

1. Will he use this line as a true checking line and will he try to match them up against the top scoring line the opposition puts on the ice? Babcock has not done this so it isn’t clear that this is likely to happen. Mikael Samuelsson went up against good competition in the playoffs and didn’t exactly shut them down [2.40 goals against/60 mins]. Dan Cleary, however, looks like a very capable defensive forward based on the competition he faced and the low goals-against average. Filppula hasn’t consistently gone up against top talent but he has shut down the lines he’s gone up against.

2. Will this line be as offensively inept as the Anaheim nothing line? Mikael Samuelsson has one 23 goal season in Detroit but that was while playing on a scoring line. Dan Cleary has two 20-goal seasons the past two years. And Val Filppula scored 24 goals between the regular season and playoffs last year. With that being said they don’t have a proven playmaker on the line. Cleary is the forechecker, Sammy has a shot - wildly inaccurate at times to be sure, and Valtteri Filppula has the wheels to backcheck and get the breakout going. If Filppula can improve his ability to generate assists [he’s about 50/50 in goals/assists ratio] then the line could be more dangerous than Anaheim’s checking line.

Red Wings

September 8th, 2008
Categories: Red Wings . Author: Dave

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