Thursday, March 19, 2009

Flyers roll out new lines in practice

Just got a Tweet (follow allthingsphilly on Twitter!) straight from the Philadelphia Flyers about some new line combinations they tried out in practice today:

Gagne - Giroux - Knuble
Carcillo - Richards - Lupul
Hartnell - Carter - Briere
Cote - Powe - Asham

The move was likely made to get Briere back up onto a scoring line since he has been playing on the 4th line as he returns to full health. While initially I don't like the idea of demoting Richards and breaking up the Lupul/Carter/Hartnell line, I do see the logic behind these new lines. The Flyers have incredible balance and scoring depth at forward and these new lines speak to that. In fact, I'm not sure I can even tell which of the lines is the "first line". Each of the top three lines features a goal scorer (Gagne, Lupul, Carter), a playmaker (Giroux, Richards, Briere) and a big bruiser (Knuble, Carcillo, Hartnell), while the fourth line remains the checking/tough guy line.

There is no confirmation yet if the Flyers will use these lines in their next game, but you can expect the Flyers to tinker with their deep group of forwards until they find the best combination.

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