What Washington Capitals fan doesn’t love our fourth line? Garnet Hathaway, Nic Dowd and Carl Hagelin are the kings of cycling the puck deep and feeding the point for a screened shot.
Problem is, while watching the game, between three Caps fans and a lonely Sens fan watching alongside us, 3/4 of us picked the fourth line to have our OT winner. I’m sorry but if we want to win the cup, we have to be expecting Alex Ovechkin, T.J. Oshie, Anthony Mantha or any top 6 forward to be our goal scorers.
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Don’t get me wrong, one of the Caps most under-rated aspects of their team is their forward depth and the 4th line day in day out shows exactly why.
Unfortunately for Pete, I think as coach he needs to shuffle up the lines a little bit. Whether its something small like Tom Wilson moving up to play with Ovi (worked well in past) or even a semi-dramatic move like having T.J. center our first line, we just need something a little different to spark some top 6 offense.
I think Wilson, who is not your every day top 6 forward, could really spark a change in pace with the 2 line-mates he’s playing alongside.
Tom Wilson is a big body. Tom Wilson, though not many Non-Caps fans would agree is also a skilled player. Every single shift through speed and fear, Wilson can create lots of space for the iconic Nicklas Backstrom-Ovechkin duo to work their magic. Not to mention with the amount Ovi shoots, always having Wilson BUZZ around the net would be ideal.
Our Second line could also use some offense. Moving Daniel Sprong up to play with a great two way forward in Lars Eller and a low-key speedy power forward in Mantha, could be a great goal scoring move. Mantha and Eller are both great passers and as we have seen Sprong has a rocket of a one-timer and can get a solid shot off in most situations. Not to mention both of Sprong’s set-up men are capable of going off for a multi-goal game.
I get it if your saying, ‘Umm.. what about Oshie.’ As we have seen in the past, Oshie is the kind of player where you can insert him with players like Conor Sheary and Michael Raffl and he will look almost the exact same while also making friendly chances for his line-mates. Of course, all Caps fans still want to see our version of the ‘perfection’ line still assembled with Dowd, Garnett, and Hagelin.
With the fourth line doing their best to be a shut down line against the Bruins top line, our big-bodied top 3 lines having a line mix-up could spark some magic against the less than average sized Bruins D-core.