Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Changing Things Up

Thanks to George Richards from the Miami Herald, we now know the lines for tonight's clash. In an attempt to mix things up in the hopes of creating some sort of offense, coach Pete DeBoer is trying some new lines. Olesz-Weiss-Booth; Stillman-Horton-Zednik; CPR; Frolik-Kreps-McLean.

On paper, I like the looks of this. Olesz, Weiss, and Booth is a high speed three-way. Nothing but speed and grit on that line. Stillman with Horts and Zed adds a bit of toughness to the individual talent that Horton and Zednik can bring. CPR has been solid all season long, no reason to mess with them. And dropping Frolik to the "4th line" adds a scoring touch to the physical play of Kreps and McLean. A bit of mix and match offense. All 4 lines can score. All 4 has at least 1 player with 12 goals or more. Looks good on paper... we can only wait and see if it produces on the ice.

At this time in the season, with just 9 games to play, one would hope that lines and chemistry wouldn't be a problem. Yet, the Panthers have struggled to score over the past couple weeks, and incidentally, have struggled to win. What they've been doing hasn't worked. Hopefully tonight's lineup creates that spark that carries this team deep into April\May hockey.

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