Consensus picks
Great responses, everyone. All of you made compelling arguments about who might fit where. I had to laugh when a couple people pointed out that all this would be out the window before the end of the first game. That's so true. Crawford switched lines so often last season that it made me dizzy.
The consensus seems to be a first line of Brown, Kopitar and Cammalleri, followed by Nagy, Handzus and Frolov, followed by Calder, Armstrong and O'Sullivan, followed by some combination of Zeiler, Ivanans, Thornton and Willsie.
That makes sense to me. Brown and Kopitar did indeed seem to click at the end of the season, although I wonder if the Kings will revisit the idea of Frolov and Kopitar playing together. It just seems a bit potentially problematic to me, if you're Crawford and your best center might have chemistry issues with one of your top two wingers. I'm sure every team has that problem to some extent, but I wonder if it's something they might try to resolve in training camp.
Seems as though there's a general agreement on the defensive pairings of Visnovsky-Stuart, Blake-Johnson and Preissing-Modry.
I think the two linchpins in all of this might be Patrick O'Sullivan and Peter Harrold. If they can play well enough in camp to force themselves into better positions, it might shake things up. You could say the same about any number of young players, but I think those two have the most potential to considerably shake things up.
Thanks for the responses everyone. Feel free to keep posting them. I'll throw another topic out there tomorrow morning.
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Rich Hammond has covered the Kings, on a full-time or part-time basis, since the 2000-01 season. He was the beat writer for the entire John Torchetti era and has witnessed Bob Miller singing country music in a Nashville honky-tonk bar. A native of Los Angeles, Rich has worked at the Daily News since 1999 and also serves as the paper's deputy sports editor. E-mail Rich at rich.hammond@dailynews.com.
Jill Painter joined the Daily News in 2000 and during the last eight years she's covered the Dodgers, Cal State Northridge, UCLA, Kings, golf and everything in between. Even though she's from Colorado, she still freezes in the Staples Center press box but always manages to thaw her fingers in time to make deadline. E-mail Jill at jill.painter@dailynews.com.
I don't like the idea of putting Brown with Kopitar. He seemed to come out of his shell towards the end of the season when he was separated from Kopitar and paired on a line with O'Sullivan. The two have had chemisty in the World Championships, why not keep them together? Also, Kopitar has played with Calder in Sweden, ironically on a line with Scott Thornton. If it were up to me, the lines would be something like...
Cammalleri-Kopitar-Calder
Frolov-Handzus-Nagy
Brown-Armstrong-O'Sullivan
Thornton-Zeiler-Ivanans/Willsie
I think the thing most people are also forgetting about the Handzus and Nagy signings is that having a couple of other Europeans is going to make Frolov much more comfortable. And a comfortable Frolov is a productive Frolov. If only we had a Russian....
Kick A** job Rich.
I am like an addict prowling your sight for a fix.
...That was my skull! I'm so wasted!
Keep it up.
If you leave us for the Lakers. Well thats just wouldn't be right. We, King Fans, have NEVER had so good.
Thank You Thank You Thank You
OK, you guys honestly don't seem to understand defensive pairings.
You have to think about how many minutes you want each guy to get. He has to get those minutes with his partner. So you can't pair Preissing and Modry. Preissing's not going to play 8 minutes a game like Modry.
Visnovsky will probably be with Stuart. Both will play 28 minutes a game and Stuart's size will help Visnovsky not get pushed around.
Preissing will be next, probably with Blake. They will play about 21-22 minutes a game. Again, note the size combination.
Finally, you will have the veteran Modry and the rookie Johnson getting about 8-10 minutes a game.
That's my opinion about the partners, but not about how many minutes each line will play, so factor that in.
Great job Rich, I enjoyed reading all the potential line combos as well. Lots to choose from.
Cammy-Kopitar-O'Sully
Fro-Handz-Nagy
Brown-Army-Calder
Are my top 6. The 4th line has too many possiblities to mention. Like you said, all the lines will be mixed and mashed after the 1st period.
I do like the D pairings of
Stuart-Preissing
JJ-Blake
Lubo-Modry/Harrold/Piskula.....
The only line combo that hasn't played together is Blake-JJ, so who knows if it will work.
I think Lundmark would look really great in that 3rd/ 4th line center position instead of Willsie.
I agree about Lundmark. I thought he played very well after he came from Calgary. Unfortunately, there is no room for him
I think we go into the season with three scoring lines...
Nagy Handzus Frolov
Osullivan Kopitar Brown
Calder Armstrong Cammalleri
And aside from Tukonen or Murray making it with the big club the fourth line would be Zeiler Thorton Wilsie
With Handzus' line first more pressure is off of the young line of Brown Kopitar and Osullivan which I think will help Osullivan feel alot less pressure.
D pairings are gonna change every game we have depth on D for once so I could care less about the actual pairings, isnt that nice.
Don't forget that Calder played in Sodertalje.
Dravecky could possibly make the team as the third line right wing.
The Kings are carrying an extra left winger and are short a center.
Gotta agree about the comments about Willsie & Lundmark. Jamie played real well for us after the trade and particularly at the end of the season, Willsie did nothing the whole year. I'd prefer and would like to see Lundmark be given another shot, possibly as the 4th line center but obviously that's not going to happen. Too bad.....Willsie has another year on his contract if I'm not mistaken so he's not going anywhere either (see Dan Cloutier)...Too bad as well.
A line of Kopitar-Cammalleri-Brown, will give Cammy 40 goals, Brown 25 goals, and Kopitar close to 100 points. Crazy? We'll see.
Ok, I would love to see:
1.Cammy-Kopitar-Calder
Kopy & Calder played together in SWE ++ sniper in Cammy.
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2.Nagy-Handz-Fro
Handzus & Nagy (package)++ playmaker in Frolov.
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3.Brown-Army-O'Sully
Brown(hitter)+O'S* && Armstrong
*O'Sully must learn some def. game so I don't think hes spot on the team is 100%.
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4.Thornton-&&-&&
&&-> Wilsie,Ivanans,Zeiler, Murray,...
4th line can be really good with some call-ups from Manchester.
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the D pairings:
SAH-->Stay @ Home player
OF-->Ofensive player
1.Stuart(SAH)-Lubo(OF)
2.JJ(OF)-Blake(SAH)
3.Preissing-Modry
++Harrold/Piskula/Dallman/Boyl... can become some time on the team
BTW: Rich H. --> I Like Your Work:):)
I agree with PRman about the D pairings, but what he leaves out is that you can double shift certain players and use others in certain situations like PP and PK. Therefore, I see the pairings as:
Lubo-Stuart
Blake-Johnson
Preising-Modry
but Lubo is going to get double shifted a lot to make sure that Modry never touches the ice. Basically Lubo Stuart and Preising are going to play together in some way all season. Blake and JJ are going to be connected at the hip.