Hockey Roster Musings, Pre-BG series
Now that we have our matchup set for this weekend, the interesting question comes... who replaces Caparusso on the top line with Hagelin? I'm thinking it's probably slide Rust up to center Hagelin and Brown, but anyone else think an alternate would be to have Scooter slide up to LW and have Hagelin play Centre? Lines would like this:
LW-C-RW
Vaughn-Hagelin-Brown
Sparks-Rust-Glendening
Deblois-Treais-Wohlberg
Rohrkemper-Lynch-Winnett
Sitting Forwards: Caparusso (inj)
Thoughts? Is there another defenseman that could move up and play a 4th line position so Deblois sits again?
DeBlois on the third line would make me so sad.
I'm pretty sure we'll have Moffatt on the third line (unless he got hurt against Northern, which I am not aware of). Wohlberg is slated to play on the wing with Hagelin at Center and Brown on the right. I really hope Louie gets healthy soon though.
Wohlberg-Hagelin-Brown
Vaughan-Rust-Glendening
Moffatt-Treais-Sparks
DeBlois-Lynch-Winnett
I'm more interested to see what defensive pairings Red comes up with. I've noticed that we've seen more of Kevin Clare for Lee Moffie, but I think the team plays better with Moffie in there to propel the offense from the blue line. Obviously, Moffie has some shortcomings defensively though.
Merrill-Langlais
Moffie-Burlon
Bennett-Pateryn
Hunwick in goal, obviously.
I think Moffie gets the 2nd pairing nod against BG, especially since we have to generate offense with Louie out. We get to the Joe or NCAA tourney though, Moffie may be seeing just PP time, especially with Pateryn playing better in terms of staying home on D.
looks like it could be downright deadly. To either team, unfortunately. All three have shown good to great offensive potential (to this point, it's been mostly just that), but all three of them have also had games where defensively they aren't so good. Matching up against LSSU's third line shouldn't be too much trouble for them, but that's my immediate concern with that line-up. One change might be to switch Sparks and Glendening, or maybe even Moffatt and Glendening. That puts a little more pop into the second line and shores up the defense of the third line some. But it also necesiitates the changing of another line, rather than just keeping the second line intact, which could be a negative. And I think Red really likes being able to put out the second line and feel like it can shut down anybody/everybody, which would be les true with either change. Obviously, Red knows what he's doing, we'll see how everything ends up working out.
As for defense, I still want to see Merrill paired with Burlon, though at this point it's probably not going to happen this season. I really like Bennet and Pateryn together. But if you do put Burlon and Merrill together you're left with Langlais and either Clare or Moffie and I don't love either pairing, so what you have if probably what I would do.
How long is Caporusso projected to be out? Time to put the theory that Denard's smile heals the sick to the test....
said 3-6 weeks. Meaning he could be back as early as the CCHA championship at the Joe, or as late as the Frozen Four.
^^This^^
Red stated at his show last week, they won't know for sure how long he is out until he skates in a week from now. It appears to be one of those injuries where you don't know the full extent of the damage until you lace them up.