Lines in Pittsburgh

[dynamo45]

Curious to know how you guys see who the 1st 2nd 3rd and 4th lines will be on the Pens this year....just a general idea...

[angus]

Christensen-Crosby-Recchi
Staal-Malkin-Sykora
Roberts-Talbot-Armstrong

they may try and package up Christensen and/or Malone for a defenseman.

[Dobber]

Roberts-Crosby-Sykora
Recchi-Malkin-Christensen
Malone-Staal-Armstrong
Ruutu-Talbot-Laraque

Tim Brent will sub in for Laraque and Christensen on occasion. Brent will also take draws when they need a righthanded man at the faceoff circle.

Therrien always switches up his lines, so line combos don\'t really matter in Pittsburgh. If they are losing the game, it will switch to

Malkin-Crosby-Recchi (or Sykora if he and Crosby really click)

I saw it happen every game I watched last year (and we\'re talking 65+ Penguins games I watched - they\'re my favorite team to watch, very exciting as you can imagine).

Christensen is very inconsistent, so while he may be a dark horse for 80 points, I probably wouldn\'t plan on 60. VERY inconsistent. You\'ll see 10 points in seven games followed by one point in 12 games.

Angus is right in perhaps trading Malone...but he\'s always been in rumors. I don\'t think they need a rearguard now though.

[lanky522]

Really in the end it comes down to this: Are you playing with crosby, malkin, or jordan staal? Pretty much any way you slice it, you\'re gonna be on a pretty deisel scoring line.

What the real question should be is: What will the powerplay lines look like? That is where players get a large number of fantasy points. A player that doesn\'t play on the powerplay is SOOOO much less valuable than a player that does.

Also, I imagine that the powerplay lines won\'t be shuffled anywhere near as much as the regular lines in Pittsburgh this coming year.

So what\'s the consensus on who will be on the 1st and 2nd units?

[jaymur]

1st pp Crosby, Malkin, Recchi, Gonchar, Whitney:woohoo:
2nd pp Christensen, Staal, Sykora, Letang, Gonchar:woohoo:
Roberts could easily bump in if he can stay healthy

[hockeylifer]

I don\'t see Esposito in your lineup. Do you not think that he will make the lineup?

[Dobber]

hockeylifer wrote:

I don\'t see Esposito in your lineup. Do you not think that he will make the lineup?

Not this year, maybe next year