Coyotes provide hint of forward lines… sort of
Oct 6, 2015, 5:35 PM | Updated: 6:41 pm
(AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Line combinations have a short shelf life in the National Hockey League. Matchups, injuries, a lack of production or a lack of chemistry can lead coaches to juggle their lines frequently — even within games.
Fans don’t care about all those possibilities, however. They still want their daily line fix of who’s playing with whom. So here’s what the Coyotes rolled out at Tuesday’s practice, three days before their season opener in Los Angeles against the Kings.
Antoine Vermette was centering left wing Max Domi and right wing Mikkel Boedker.
Martin Hanzal was centering left wing Tobias Rieder and right wing Anthony Duclair.
Brad Richardson was centering left wing Kyle Chipchura and right wing Shane Doan.
Boyd Gordon was centering left wing Jordan Martinook and right wing Steve Downie.
John Scott and Joe Vitale were the extra forwards, although both also skated with Gordon.
“I wouldn’t say they are set in stone,” Coyotes coach Dave Tippett said of the lines. “We’re going to scrimmage (Wednesday) so we’ll get a better read on it then.”
When asked what he liked about those particular combinations, Tippett had some fun with reporters.
“What if they change tomorrow?” he asked with a smile.
We’ll deal with that then. For now, it’s instructive to know that Tippett thinks more about pairings than he does about trios. He likes Vermette and Boedker together and they have some good history. He also likes Richardson and Doan together. Until recently, he liked Domi and Hanzal together, but that has changed — at least for a day.
“We tweaked that a little bit just to try to balance things out,” he said.
Domi got a chance to play with Vermette and Boedker for the last half of the third period in the team’s season finale against San Jose on Friday.
“I thought we had great speed and showed some good things we can build on,” Vermette said. “(Max is) a dynamic player. He’s quick. He makes things happen. He’s a threat out there. It’s fun to play with him.”
Richardson has had a pretty good idea he’d be playing with Doan since Tippett first floated the idea long before camp began.
“He’s always responsible, he’s in the right spots and he talks a lot out there and that helps a centerman when you know where he’s going to be,” Richardson said of Doan. “With (training) camp, it always takes a while for you get a sense of who you’re with and how you want to play together, but I think I’m really going to enjoy playing with Shane.”
Until it changes.
One area where the Coyotes do appear to have set combinations is on defense. Oliver Ekman-Larsson will play with Michael Stone on the top pairing, Nicklas Grossmann will play with Connor Murphy and Klas Dahlbeck will play with Zbynek Michalek. Even that could change, however. If Ekman-Larsson and Stone don’t pan out, Michalek could move up to Stone’s spot.