Please Keep Roy, Higgins and Kelser Together

[theminister]

The Canucks should start every game with Roy on the third line so that the majority of our early minutes have a somewhat even scoring threat on all lines.

Higgins-Kesler-Roy looked good together and that's an option we should keep for later in the game if we are down and need to stack the lines. It's a good thing that we know, and they know, they can play well together but they also play well with other players too.

If we're totally healthy then we should start the game like this:

Sedins-Kassian

Higgins-Kesler-Burrows

Raymond-Roy-Hansen

Ballard-Lappy-Booth

... and then finish a game like this if we are down after two periods.

Sedins-Burr

Higgins-Kesler-Roy

Raymond/Booth-Lapppy-Hansen

You shorten the bench when you need to but you should start a game with more balance

[CanucksJay]

Call up Schroeder, scratch Weise.

Daniel - Henrik - Kassian

Higgins - Kesler - Roy

Burrows - Lapierre - Hansen

Raymond - Schroeder - Booth

[chester144]

Higgins and Roy is a tandem. Hansen and Raymond is a tandem.

Kassian is needed for some muscle from time to time, so interchange him with Burrows.

Have a natural center on both 2nd/3rd line:

Sedin - Sedin - Kassian/Burrows

Raymond - Kesler - Hansen

Higgins - Roy - Kassian/Burrows

Booth - Lapierre - Weise

[Sugar baby watermelon]

I bet it's the beard!

[ikillchicken]

Sedin - Sedin - Kassian

Higgins - Kesler - Roy

Burrows - Lapierre - Hansen

Weise - Pinizzotto (his actual position) - Sestito

Raymond

[John.Tallhouse]

Higgy-Roy-Kes

I love this line

They can all make a beauty pass & they all have a nice shot/play making ability.

[higgyfan]

That lineup looks so sexy. too bad AV is a moron

[BigRedMachine]

Who is Kelser?

[Nino]

Who is Kelser?

[Boudrias]

The 'moron' is the guy that put the Higgins Roy Kes line together in the first place (most people were against it and now...)

The 'moron' brings Kass up to the Sedin line when he thinks there is an advantage to it (ie last night he even scored). Burrows is a better and smarter player, who makes the Sedins play better. He should continue to be on the Sedin line, with Kass stepping in when needed.

Schroeder will get run over in the playoffs, just like Raymond was last night. If Lapierre continues to play like he did last night, the 3rd will be his. Schroeder might be ok on the 4th with Kass and Booth (if he comes back). To be effective, he needs to have guys that can score on his line.

[cammy]

Sedin, Sedin, Burrows

Higgins, Kesler, Roy

Raymond, Lappy, Hansen

Plug, Schroeder, Kassian

That is the lineup i would go with into the playoffs, however i hope that from thsi year there is a lot more chemistry and tried combinations so that Av can juggle depending on the situation.

Ie - the sedin are getting pushed around- throw Kassian up there mid game. Or - We are up by 1 in the 3rd, throw out a line of Hansen, Kesler, Burrows to shut the game down. Or we are creating chances with speed - switch Schroeder onto the 3rd to act as scoring line and switch Burrows with Higgins, to allow the second to be mainly a shutdown line.

There has ben a lot of line juggling forced by injury - hopefully this year av has learnt what does and doesnt work in certain situations and as such switched the players mid game to force the opposition to react rather than reacting to their moves all the time.

This is the one thing that may put us over the edge, not the players who i belive can do it, and should have done it already, but Av controlling the game through coaching decisions

[DIBdaQUIB]

yeah looked wicked all night. Something about higgy just triggers roy

[CanucksJay]

At all levels, players are only as good as those around them. Roy needs guys with speed adn a sense for the net. Higgins needs a guy who can set him up. I believe Kesler also needs a set-up guy.

I remember playing old-timers hockey. We had a guy who played pro on our team (he was like 60 yrs old). He was one of our best obviously but not by a huge margin. We figured it was just age.

A guy moved to our area that had played major junior and joined our group for a few games. I can't describe how those two took over the game at a level we had never even dreamed our old guy could play. Their movement together, speed and puck movement was a joy to behold.

Higgy, Roy and Kes didn't score last night but should have...just a matter of time and they have the potential to really light it up when they click. It was that line that made the Sedins look better. Chicago doesn't have the size and depth to effectively shut down both our top lines when stacked like that. Few teams do.

THis team is much better with that top 6, moving Kass and Burrows on and off the Twin's line depending on the situation/competition.

Lappy Hansen and Raymond is a fast, reasonably physical shot down line with good scoring potential as well.

Hope to see this for the last 2 games and into the playuoffs.

[Snake Doctor]

Nice to have a decent second line to take the pressure off the twins.

[Snake Doctor]

Nice to have a decent second line again to take some pressure off the twins.

[CanucksJay]

The 'moron' is the guy that put the Higgins Roy Kes line together in the first place (most people were against it and now...)

The 'moron' brings Kass up to the Sedin line when he thinks there is an advantage to it (ie last night he even scored). Burrows is a better and smarter player, who makes the Sedins play better. He should continue to be on the Sedin line, with Kass stepping in when needed.

Schroeder will get run over in the playoffs, just like Raymond was last night. If Lapierre continues to play like he did last night, the 3rd will be his. Schroeder might be ok on the 4th with Kass and Booth (if he comes back). To be effective, he needs to have guys that can score on his line.

[RWMc1]

We were at home, so we got the line matches that we wanted. Had we been on the road, it would have been a different story. Also we have to take into account who our opponent will be. I was very encouraged by Lapierre as 3rd line center. He seems to step it up in the Playoffs. As for Kassian full-time with the Sedins, I don't think his defensive awareness is where it needs to be. Every now and then, such as after PKs, is enough for now.

[Kesler's Nose]

I like the lines... What is our 3rd supposed to look like though??

If we don't stick it out with Roy on the 2nd, then I could deal with having this as our lines going into the playoffs:

Sedin - Sedin - Kassian

Raymond - Kesler - Burrows

Higgins - Roy - Hansen

Booth - Lapierre - Weise

[kmotamed]

Keep Burrows with the Sedins. Kassian can play the 3rd line until he fully develops into the power forward he is meant to be!

[SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME]

I love what a Higgins-Roy-Kesler line brings to this team, in terms of the top-six and having a legitimate 2nd line (arguably a 1B) and secondary scoring. However, my love starts to fade a little when I think about the bottom-six, especially if the only options AV will work with are between Ebbett and Lappy for the 3C and 4C spots.

While Schroeder isn't an ideal bottom-six centre, going into the playoffs, his underlying stats are certainly superior to Ebbett's. Their overall team on-ice/off-ice stats are similar (although Ebbett's are worse and falling quickly). Stats.hockeyanalysis.com's servers aren't working currently so I can't give numbers. Behindthenet.ca is running, however, so the individual stats are available and Schroeder is simply better in terms of Corsi/Fenwick indicators. Their PDOs are on opposite ends, with regression projecting improved performance for Schroeder and continued decline for Ebbett. Schroeder also provides a FO% that is roughly 5% better than Ebbett's. With the Chicago Wolves wrapping up their 2012-13 season/postseason, it's probably time to make the switch now.

I'd also like to see what Kellan Lain could do at the NHL level, at least in the couple remaining regular season games. However, I don't imagine there's enough time and, even if he played lights out hockey, it would still be quite a stretch to play an untested rookie in the playoffs.

Pinizzotto and Sestito both have some centreman experience at the lower levels and, while probably they wouldn't push Ebbett out of the middle (especially in AV's mind), they might offset some of Ebbett's liabilities. If either were to play, I'd like to see them used more often on draws (that's assuming Schroeder doesn't replace Ebbett).

It's really a shame that Gillis let guys like Jussi Jokinen and Adam Hall slip through his fingers this season. Both were available via waivers or minimal assets trades. Jokinen has been able to step into the Pittsburgh lineup with Crosby hurt and has put-up 4G, 4A, 8pts, +4 in 7 games and roughly 15:00 TOI/G. Hall, while racking up the frequent flyer miles with all his movements this season, still provided solid play as a defensive specialist, shutting down opponents wherever he played.

Both guys are also faceoff aces. Jokinen winning 57.8% and Hall winning 55.0%. In terms of strong sides, Jokinen is a LH and Hall is a RH, which would have provided a nice balance.

Imagine the options these guys would have provided. Both are C/W players who can play down the middle or compliment from the wings. While Jokinen isn't big, he's much bigger than either Ebbett or Schroeder. I won't go too far into his merits but suffice to say that he plays a solid possession game, has excellent positioning, is very skilled, and would be a valuable complimentary forward for the offense. Hall is a purely defensive player who gives you nothing offensively but also leaves the opponent with nothing. Basically, no one scores very much, on either side of the ice, when Hall is playing. Fairly similar to what Malhotra provided defensively and on the faceoff dot (albeit not nearly as good of a player as pre-injury Manny) .

It's too late, of course, but it would have been so easy for Gillis to grab both of these guys for the playoffs (and it wouldn't have cost anything significant in assets). With a depth of C/W players consisting of Lapierre, Ebbett, Schroeder, Jokinen, Hall, Pinizzotto, Sestito, and Lain available for bottom-six duties, there would be no tradeoffs for putting Roy and Kesler together on the second line, because the Canucks would have the players necessary to create whatever type of bottom-six they wanted, from speed/scoring to energy/hitting to shutdown/defensive (and nearly everything in between). Too many lineup options to post with those guys added in.

All of which brings us back to the present quandry. Do the benefits of playing Roy and Kesler together on the 2nd line outweigh the costs of weakening the bottom-six down the middle? Team weaknesses are intensified during the playoffs as opposition coaches focus in on any areas where they can create match-up advantages. Higgins-Roy-Kesler could be huge for the Canucks this postseason but those gains could also be wiped away by a 3rd or 4th line that gets eaten alive by opposing teams. It's going to be interesting to see how MG and AV address the issue.

Of course, MG could have easily acquired the necessary players, in addition to Derek Roy, that would have avoided the whole dilemma. Hopefully, the current centre depth (including potential call-ups like Schroeder and Lain) will prove enough and we won't have to play the "coulda-woulda-shoulda" game.