Washington Capitals Roundtable: Where Do The Forwards Fit?
What Would Your Ideal Forward Lines Look Like (At Full Strength)?
It’s everyone’s favorite time: playing virtual GM. Here’s what our ideal lines look like moving forward.
Brad Davis: The Washington Capitals have so many options here. Here’s my personal opinion.
8-19-77, 65-92-14, 25-90-43, 21-10-83.
Can anyone match up with that fourth line?
Kevin Marland: My lines:
8-19-77, 90-92-14, 25-83-43, 49-65-21
I’d give center roles to Andre since that’s his spot for the club’s future. I like the idea of having one wing play in front of the net on every line. For what he’s paid, that can be Brooks’ job.
Scott Deming: When it comes down to it, Trotz clearly has options. And with the talent and depth of this team, there are likely several lineups that can go out and win games, even playoff series. That being said, when Beagle returns, I’d go with:
8-19-77, 65-92-14, 25-90-43, 21-10-83
That fourth line of Laich-Richards-Beagle will be an absolute nightmare to play against. And you can debate all you want whether the second line is better with Johansson, or if the third line is better with Beagle, but you absolutely cannot debate whether the third or fourth lines would be better with Burakovksy. That’s why this is the ideal Capitals lineup.
Alex Mandaro: For the 2nd line I would roll out Burakovsky – Kuznetsov – Williams and for the 4th I would go with Laich – Richards – Latta. These lines have great chemistry and proved themselves in their dominant performance in the second and third periods of the Blue Jackets game.
Ben Eisenberg: The only tweaks I would consider making to the top six, if the team starts to struggle, would be to flip Backstrom and Kuznetsov. In some ways, Beagle’s injury solved a problem for them. It led to them picking up Mike Richards, who already looks like an upgrade on Beagle to me, and precipitated MoJo centering the third line which has worked wonders for Tom Wilson and Jason Chimera. Johansson makes that third line a going concern for opponents.
I can’t see Trotz breaking up the third line or moving Richards to wing the way he is playing, so I could see something like Laich-Richards-Beagle with Beags moving to wing. That sucks for Michael Latta, but it’s also probably the best fourth line in hockey. Once Beagle returns, I’d go with a bottom six of Chimera-Johansson-Wilson and Laich-Richards-Beagle. I doubt there’s a comparable bottom six group in the league.
Well, don’t just leave it to us! Feel free to answer these questions, and let us know what you think!