Babcock needs to re-unite ZDH

by adamgreuel on May 3, 2009 8:06 PM CDT

I'm starting to think that Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Holmstrom need to be re-united. IMO, Datsyuk and Hossa have been fairly invisible this entire time and they have never showed any chemistry together. Hossa was at his best this season when he was on a line with Franzen and Flip (who has also been terrible.

I think the lines should look like this:

Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Holmstrom

Franzen-Filppula-Hossa

Hudler-Cleary-Samuelsson

Kopecky-Helm-Maltby

Anyone care to agree or disagree? It would also help if Rafalski came back soon.... Lidstrom, Ericsson and Stuart were all double shifting to play with Lebda and Kronner, even a return of 2008 play-offs Kronwall would be nice.

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Something to spark Datsyuk and / or Hossa

As much as I often think Albom just recycles his columns and mails them in with name changes, he does point out the obvious along with an info nugget from Puck Daddy:

“But Datsyuk isn’t even contributing in the non-scoring ways you’d expect of him. In yesterday’s game, he had a turnover differential of minus-2, and he neither created nor gave up a turnover in the first game. Overall, he is tied for 39th in takeaways with four, but is tied for 23rd in giveaways with six. To give you an idea of just how severe the dropoff has been, Datsyuk led the league in turnover differential at plus-49 in the regular season.”

I would expect something from Babcock to get them thinking and playing at a different energy level.

.0128 > 45-35

by chrisabo on May 4, 2009 7:55 PM CDT reply actions

Lines

You know… I totally agree. The lines that he has now have worked, but during the regular season whenever the lines got stale, he switched it up. Usually it worked magic. The Datsyuk, Hossa line was great at the start of the year then it tailed off. Then he put Datsyuk back with Z and Franzen and Hossa together and it worked great. Then that got stale and he switched back. It worked again.

Right now I think Babcock wants Z, Hoss, and Clear against the RPG line. I see no problem playing Dats, Z, and Homer, or Hoss, Franzen, and Cleary or Filppula against them. I agree with your lines.

Other suggested lines.

Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Holmstrom
Hossa, Franzen, Cleary
Hudler, Filppula, Samuelsson
Maltby, Helm, Kopecky

by dewman8810 on May 6, 2009 11:31 PM CDT reply actions