Helene St. James has a brief interview with Mike Babcock in which he discusses defensive pairings and forward lines, among other things. It’s typical Babcock, all excitement about competition for the 7th defensive spot and having a banger like Dallas Drake threaten to move up in the depth chart.
It does look like, for now at least, Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk will be split up, as he has them slated to play with Mikael Samuelsson and Tomas Holmstrom, respectively, with Jiri Hudler and Johan Franzen filling in the other spots. Valtteri Filpulla is penciled in with Kris Draper and Dan Cleary at the moment. Babcock sees Tomas Kopecky, Kirk Maltby and Drake making up the fourth line. As he points out, Igor Grigorenko would throw all of that off, if he makes the team, but that’s a good problem to have.
The defensive pairings as he has them now are pretty obvious: Nick Lidstrom with Brian Rafalski, Andreas Lilja with Niklas Kronwall, and Chris Chelios with Brett Lebda.
Personally, I’d be surprised if this is quite the look we’ll see when the puck drops in October, as Babcock will have plenty of time to tinker and will undoubtedly come up with different combinations.
Hmm. Those sound like some pretty good potential lines/pairings, but I’m kinda disappointed the Fils would only be moved up one line. The Mule being on the top two lines is something that I think Babs should reconsider. I think he’d do better playing with Draper and Cleary, then have Fils play with Datsyuk.
But in any event, I’m just glad Hudler and Fils are penciled in for the roster. Their hard work last year earned them those spots, and I can’t wait to see what they can do with more ice time.
Alex,
If Babcock doesn’t actually split up Datsyuk and Zetterberg, Filppula would probably be a lock to center the second line. I know there are those who say the team should spread out the talent and have Hank and Pavel center their own lines, but that idea never made any sense to me. Why break up one of the best tandems in hockey? Babcock has bought into that idea, apparently, but hopefully Fil will have a stellar camp and force Babs to change his thinking.
Franzen’s a bull, but I’d probably rather see Cleary in the position of top-two winger. He has more of an offensive upside than Johan, who may be slightly better defensively.
I had expected Babcock to move Filppula up the depth chart more permanently after his playoff performance, but I had worried that Hudler might get shouldered out. It’s good to see Babcock letting up on his doghouse mentality with Jiri. We’ll see how long it lasts.
Here’s what I don’t understand: Babcock did the same thing last season, putting Datsyuk and Zetterberg on different lines to start the season. What happened? Zetterberg had 3 points in the whole month of October. (2 really, because his goal against Vancouver in the season opener was really flukey.) Datsyuk did a little better with 9, but still underachieved immensely. Babcock finally relented and put them back together and they started to produce.
So why is he doing this again? I know that he split them up in the playoffs for a bit and they produced separately, but they’re still much better when they play together. Sure we need more scoring throughout the lines but, like Matt said, they’re one of the best tandems in the league.
Why wouldn’t Babcock want to see more magic like this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tir33LZWf0Q
I know, I know. I’m a little late jumping in on this topic, but I just now got to a reliable internet access. I love seeing Zetter and Dats playing together, and when they do they are darn near impossible to stop. But you can see what Babs is trying to do. If they could somehow be as affective without each other, we would have two incredibly dangerous lines the opposition would have to worry about. Why not do everything you can to try to get that? Besides, those two really do need to learn how to be stars without each other. Splitting them up also allows other teammates to increase their production. As we all know, playing with Henrik can pretty much help anyone. So, while I love to see their highlight-reel plays, I can totally understand why Babs is trying this. If it doesn’t work again, odds are he’ll put them back together. But I have a feeling he’s gonna keep trying until it works. At the end of the day, I have to think he knows what he’s doing. There’s a reason he’s the coach of one of the best teams in the NHL.
Megan,
I can see what Babcock is trying to do as well and I obviously see the utility of it. It’s against the Wings’ mentality to be a one-line team, we all know that and they will always look for ways to spread the wealth. Splitting up Hank and Pavel is the best way to do that, but only on a temporary basis.
I think it’s fair to say that Wings have the depth at forward to keep Pavel and Hank together and still have offense left over. That said, it may be overly optimistic to expect guys like Franzen and Cleary to pick up where they left off, and for Hudler and Filppula to take leading roles right off the bat. However, it’s not unreasonable to expect them to produce over the course of the season and this new arrangement may be Babcock’s way of jump-starting that production. As you say, playing Zetterberg can help just about anyway get going and much the same can be said of Datsyuk. With those two helping along the young guns at the start, Jiri and Fil may be in a position to star on their own line (the second?) before too long. And then Babcock can reunite the Eurotwins.
I don’t think it would be a smart move for the Wings to split up Hank and Pavel any longer than it takes them to spark other players to production. Otherwise, it’s as though they’re being split up just for the sake of splitting them up. They play too well together to do that.
They do play well together, but you’re missing the point. Like I already said, I love Pavel and Hank together. They’re an awesome pair. But they need to learn to produce without each other. In my opinion, it will make them better hockey players.