Line Change: Lapierre – Miroshnichenko Return Gives Bears A Face Lift in Game One
Coach Todd Nelson continues to push all the right buttons
If you’ve been watching the Hershey Bears over the last two months, you would have become used to some very typical forward lines.
The long standing call ups of Mike Sgarbossa, Hendrix Lapierre, and at the end of the regular season, Ivan Miroshnichenko, saw Hershey run a top line with Mike Vecchione at center with Alex Limoges and Ethen Frank as the wings. The second line featured Jimmy Huntington at center with Pierrick Dube and Joe Snively flanking, while a rotating cast skated on lines three and four depending on who was available and was needed for the game.
Asked through out the end of the regular season, Nelson talked about the excitement he got as a coach to find the right combinations. He also mentioned a few times that it was a challenge.
With the Washington Capital’s season ending last Sunday, the expectation of Lapierre and Miro’s return to the Den for the Calder Cup Playoffs took place. While it is awesome to see these two incredibly talented players return to Hershey, there were questions about how Todd Nelson would line up his forwards with two players who had not been consistent parts of the lineup since February.
That question was asked, wondered, thought through and answered in game one.
Nelson kept it simple. Lapierre, fresh off a solid stretch with Washington where he got rave reviews by coaches and fans alike for his play, was slotted on the first line with Limoges and Frank, while Miro was placed on the third line with Vecchione and Matthew Phillips. A line that many AHL teams would be excited to have as their top line.
The spark and jump on the ice was evident from puck drop and just under four minutes into competition, placing Lappy on the top line paid off.
“Obviously pretty happy, Limoges and Frankie I think we can be a pretty good line,” Lapierre said post game.
While not everything was perfect, even Lapierre admitted that “we can generate a lot more, we can be a lot better. It was our first game together so I am sure we will adjust – we will find out where we are on the ice.”
Both Lapierre and Miro added necessary speed and skill elements to a Hershey offense that can always use more of it, and their production in game one has to be appreciated after only finding out Tuesday that they would be together.
The lines though are not painted under the ice according to Nelson.
“We’ll look at the numbers to see how the matchups went tonight,” Nelson said. “I pretty much just rolled four lines tonight and we’ll see what the analytics say and we’ll adjust it accordingly.”
So, we shall see if there will be additional lineup changes to be had, but the Bears have a plethora of talent, which is not a bad problem to have when you’re looking for back-to-back Calder Cups.
