Justin Bourne at the Backhand Shelf had a fantastic post earlier today on rewarding grinders for playing well, then giving them too many minutes. We saw a little of this last night for the Blue Jackets. While the 4th line of Colton Gillies, Mark Letestu and Jared Boll played around six minutes of even strength ice time, they were quite effective in doing so. As the game wore on, CBJ Coach Todd Richards ending up rewarding them. Through most of the game, they were doing exactly what a 4th line is supposed to do. They kept the puck deep in the offensive zone, they threw the body around with abandon, got the fans and teammates excited, and (most importantly) they avoided getting scored on. They even managed to draw a couple of CBJ powerplays. This fine play resulted in the bountiful reward of a few extra minutes of playing time in the 3rd period, as almost half of their ice time came in the final frame.
If you aren’t sure what you are looking at there, it is the Play-By-Play Log from the scariest moment of last nights game. With just under seven minutes to go in a tight 2-1 game, Dallas coach Glen Gulatzan threw out the depth line of Vernon Fiddler, Erik Nystrom and Tomas Vincour for a faceoff in the Blue Jackets zone. As these three don’t pose much of an offensive threat, Richards countered with the Gillies-Letestu-Boll line (backed up by the third pair of Adrian Aucoin and John Moore). Letestu won the draw, an outlet pass was missed, and the puck skipped untouched all the way to the Stars end. Icing.
This is where the “reward” of an extra shift could have cost the Jackets the game. With the icing call, Richards had no choice but to leave the 4th line (and 3rd defense pairing) on the ice. Gulatzan wisely pulled off the Fiddler line and replaced them with Loui Eriksson, Jamie Benn and Jaromir Jagr. This is a coach’s nightmare. At home you should be able to keep your worst players from starting off in the defensive zone against an opponents top scorers (and probably the three most offensively talented players in Nationwide Arena last night). This is especially true that late in the 3rd period of a 2-1 game.
Richards (and everyone else pulling for the CBJ) got lucky. Benn won the draw, the Stars got set up in the offensive zone, then Eriksson muffed a pass to defenseman Stephane Robidas. The puck skittered back to the Dallas end, and the Jackets 4th line raced off the ice. While that line played hard last night, the fastest I saw them moving was that line change. The lesson here: coaches need to remember why 4th liners are 4th liners in the first place. Don’t get cute. A couple shifts of hard play in the offensive zone against the opponents plugs does not mean career 4th liners should get defensive zone draws late in close games. The Blue Jackets got away with it last night, and hopefully the coaches learned a lesson.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
