It sounds easy to rank the top lines in the NHL, but it's actually a surprisingly difficult task.
For one thing, coaches are a little like the cast of Scooby-Doo—always meddling. They often prefer permanent duos to sets of three; sometimes they can't be bothered to even keep pairs together. Add in injuries, and line combinations are in constant flux.
Our approach here has been to go with the most common top line over the course of the full season—provided that all of the players on that unit are still with the team—rather than with the most recent combinations.
Then, there are special teams to consider. Power-play time and penalty-kill time are often treated differently to even-strength ice time, and the beloved depth charts provided on broadcasts and toyed with endlessly by coaches and fans alike can have little in common with special teams. Our approach has been to restrict ourselves to considering 5-on-5 performance; overtime and special teams are different skills and assignments vary considerably.
We're also looking only at actual work over the course of this season. A good or even great player having a bad year ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Jonathan Willis
Ranking Every NHL Team’s Top Line in 2015-16
April 1st, 2016 by Jonathan Willis Leave a reply »
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