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Where have all the great lines gone? - professional hockey

Sporting News, The, Jan 22, 2001 by Chris Stevenson

There was a time when nicknames of all the best lines. Today, it's a different story.

The NHL used to have more colorful lines than Dennis Miller. It was fertile ground for some of the greatest nicknames in sports with three-man forward units that used to light lamps and brighten headlines.

Names like the Kraut Line (try getting away with that one now), the Punch Line, the Production Line, the French Connection, the Triple Crown line and, not so long ago, the Legion of Doom.

Now?

It seems three-man combinations don't stay together long enough to know each other's names, never mind get a nickname.

For sure, there are still some three-man units that play the majority of time together.

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In Pittsburgh, the Penguins' new trio of comeback king Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr and young Jan Hrdina, who must think he has died and gone to hockey heaven, is burying opponents.

In Ottawa, Magnus Arvedson, Radek Bonk and Marian Hossa form the best two-way line in the league. And in Atlanta, one of the stunning stories of the season is the play of Donald Audette with Andrew Brunette and Ray Ferraro.

In New Jersey, the line of Jason Arnott, Petr Sykora and Patrik Elias led the Devils' drive to a Stanley Cup last spring.

In St. Louis, the Pierre Turgeon-Scott Young-Dallas Drake unit and the Slovak line of Pavol Demitra with Michal Handzus and Lubos Bartecko give the Blues a great 1-2 (or 1-2-3) combination.

And fans in the Big Apple are pleased with the moves made by the Rangers' Czech Mates line of Petr Nedved, Jan Hlavac and Radek Dvorak, but the line--and the team--needs to find more success before the name is likely to stick around.

It used to be that nearly every NHL team had a great line with a great name. They stuck together for years, and the names still roll off the tongue.

It was expansion and skyrocketing salaries in the 1990s that started making it tougher and tougher to keep big stars together on one team, never mind one line, and the number of great trios declined.

It remains to be seen whether the Legion of Doom, the Flyers' combination of Eric Lindros, John LeClair and Mikael Renberg, will go down as the last line that stayed together long enough to gain a colorful--and memorable--name.

In today's NHL, more often than not, coaches lean toward sticking with duos. In Anaheim, Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne have been a longtime pairing. In Ottawa, it's Shawn McEachern and Alexei Yashin. In Phoenix, it's Jeremy Roenick and Keith Tkachuk. A third man is rolled in and out depending on the club's fortunes at the time.

"There are several reasons for that, but the biggest factor is injury," Senators coach Jacques Martin says. "Look at the number of guys on the injured list now. How many guys stay healthy for a full season? That makes a big difference when you're trying to keep guys together."

The Arvedson-Bonk-Hossa line (sorry, no nickname yet) is the perfect example. The trio started the season at a staggering pace and was reflective of the trend in recent years toward a top line that is responsible at both ends of the ice.

In the first 18 games, before Arvedson missed six weeks with a broken foot, they had a combined 23 goals and 34 assists and a combined plus-44 in plus-minus differential. With Arvedson out for 19 games, Bonk's and Hossa's play suffered as Martin was forced to juggle other players on the left side. Arvedson returned two weeks ago, and Bonk responded with his first NHL hat trick and a six-point night and Hossa had a club-record five assists in an 8-3 win over the Lightning.

Two other factors are largely responsible for the death of the so-called big lines. Actually, it's the absence of those two other factors--patience and depth--that work against stable, consistent, three-man combinations.

In today's NHL, where playoff races are tight and big payrolls mean big expectations, patience is in short supply. The mentality of hire a coach, blink, fire a coach is prevalent.

"Expectations around most teams, from the ownership and everybody else, are so high," Martin says. "Coaches just don't have the patience they used to have (if a line isn't producing)."

Bruins coach Mike Keenan is notorious for juggling his lines, looking for a spark that ignites three players. But he says the days of a line that can put up big points and capture the imagination are gone, victims of a 30-team NHL where the offensive talent is spread pretty thin.

If a team puts three top offensive talents together on one line, that doesn't leave much for the other three units. "The depth on teams is just not great enough," Keenan says. "I know that sounds simple, but that's probably the most accurate way of putting it."

Money and contracts are an issue, too. In Edmonton, Bill Guerin was off to a great start this season playing with Doug Weight and Ryan Smyth. But Guerin was going to be an unrestricted free agent, and Oilers G.M. Kevin Lowe found a deal he couldn't refuse, shipping Guerin to the Brains for holdout Anson Carter.

Where have all the great lines gone? - professional hockey

Sporting News, The, Jan 22, 2001 by Chris Stevenson

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