Line Rotation The Good, The Bad and The Ugly!

After the Pittsburgh Penguins lost tonight versus the Toronto Maple Leafs, there are many fans questioning the merits of constantly shuffling lines from one game to the next. Especially after coming off a winning streak that included a shutout.

There are two camps concerning the merits of regular line rotation, those who live by it and those who are vehemently opposed to it. I will examine the pros and cons of this philosophy and in the end give my personal take on it.

The Good:

Regular shuffling of the pack, can shake up a team when in a slump. You promote players who have been working hard up to a higher line and demote a player to a lower line to motivate them to improve their play. If this psychological motivation works, it should result in all players working harder.

Having most players getting a taste of playing with each other enables you to throw any combination out onto the ice and they will have some semblance of chemistry together and makes adjustments easier when injuries occur.

Line shuffling enables the coach to adjust his lines to match the needs for each specific game. So, if your top line needs a little more size for a particular game, you can throw a checking line player with some scoring ability onto it.

Finally, line shuffling will keep the opposition guessing as to what combinations they are going to have to defend against and how to plan ahead to defend it.

The Bad:

Constant line shuffling can be counter productive to building team chemistry; sometimes players need more than a couple of games to gel.

Shuffling lines can result in players that are on a hot streak going cold, because of a lack of continuity. It can also be very demoralizing for a player who is playing well to be demoted for the sake of shaking up other players.

If everyone is kept on the same lines for the majority of the games, not only does it build continuity, but it also doesn't ask anyone to play in situations they are not normally comfortable with.

You shouldn't shuffle lines if it's going to result in asking players to do things that doesn't play to their talents, especially if it results in a one way offensive talent, being asked to take a defensive role on a checking line.

The Ugly:

Michael Therrien the head coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins is a huge advocate of line shuffling, but his decision to dramatically shuffle his lines on Thursday, was a poor one.

The penguins were carrying a winning streak into the game and a shutout against the New York Rangers in their most recent game. This was not the time to have a complete overhaul of the lines. It was also not in the best interest of the team to ask Petr Sykora one of the Penguins most offensive stars to play a third line checking role.

The result of this line tinkering, was a disjointed team effort that included a -3 for Sykora and a humiliating 5-2 loss to the Leafs. Not only did it not produce the extra offense wanted, it also ended any chance of the Penguins building on their nice little winning streak.

My View:

Line shuffling should have a place in every coach's strategy book. However, there is a time and a place to use it. It should not be used when a team is on a winning streak, just to try and tweak a little more offense out of a team that is already winning and should never result in asking an offensive star to play a checking role, when that player shouldn't be anywhere near a checking line.