Philadelphia Flyers Shake Up Lines, Load Up Top Line
The Philadelphia Flyers will re-shuffle their forward lines again tonight, looking for a better start and more 5v5 pressure
Based on reports from the morning skate, every single Philadelphia Flyers line will look different tonight.
It’s probably a good idea that coach Dave Hakstol is looking for better results. While it’s wonderful that the Flyers have pulled off some furious comebacks, their “slow starts” must be addressed.
To improve matters, Hakstol is starting up at the top. The Flyers will load up the top line with Claude Giroux, Jakub Voracek, and Travis Konecny.
As crazy as it sounds, it almost feels as if Claude Giroux is the add-on to this new top line. The play of Voracek and Konecny on the wing, previously anchored by Sean Couturier, has been the source of the Flyers best offense this season. Replacing Couturier with Giroux should add up to even more goals.
This might make Konecny more of a shooter than when centered by Couturier, but it’s a bigger change for Giroux. Giroux has 8 points this season, but they are all assists and 5 of them came on the power play. These new wingers should jumpstart Giroux from his current even-strength performance of 7 games, 0 goals, 3 assists, and -5.
Bottom 6
Moving down to the second line, the Flyers new second line is basically a responsible two-way unit. Couturier and Matt Read are reunited after years of third line duty together, and Simmonds always does dirty work as well. Hopefully this will not put a brake on the offensive contributions of Read and Couturier, as the pair have scored a combined 8 goals in 7 games thus far.
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Moving to line 3, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare is nowhere to be seen. Now Nick Cousins will center Brayden Schenn and Dale Weise. This line could have some really hot and cold games. Cousins is a good defensive player, but neither Schenn nor Weise do much to dictate possession on the ice. This group could pop in a few goals, but could also have a lot of painful shifts.
Lastly, we hit the fourth line. Here, Bellemare has taken Boyd Gordon’s slot, and will center Chris VandeVelde and Roman Lyubimov. Bellemare for Gordon is definitely an upgrade at 5v5, but I’m not sure it will “move the needle” overall and this line will start contributing much.
The other consequence of removing Gordon from the lineup comes on the penalty kill. Gordon has been playing big penalty kill minutes, primarily to the benefit of Claude Giroux. With Gordon out , Giroux is the only right-handed faceoff man in the lineup, and his vacation from penalty killing duties this season may now be over.
We’ll get to see this lineup in action tonight at 7pp against the Arizona Coyotes. If nothing else, look for a big game from the top line.
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