Wolski Moves To Center

by David Driscoll-Carignan on Jan 3, 2009 3:14 PM MST

Adrian Dater is burning the weekend oil to get us some major lineup changes for Sunday's game. Per his blog, Sunday's lines will be:

Smyth, Hensick, Stewart
Hejduk, Wolski, Jones
Tucker, Arnason, Svatos
McLeod, Laperriere, Willsie

No Ben Guite, which seems an odd choice given how bad the Avs have been in the circle lately. Other than that, I like this move. I never got a chance to cover this in an article, but when Stastny went down my first thought was to split Smyth and Hejduk up. There's a lot of "I'm curious to see" items here. Like, I'm curious to see how Wolski will do at center (I think he could be better than at left wing). And I'm curious to see how Hejduk looks on the left (not sure how this one will work out, but he too could use a little shakeup). Most of all, I've been lobbying to see Hensick get time on the first line, and I'm really curious (and excited) to see Smyth, Hensick and Stewart in action.

Budaj will be in net, which means I give Tony G two thumbs way up for this move. He certainly isn't above criticism this year, but I think he's handled his players a lot better than his predescesor. He gave Arnason a chance, and now he's moving on to Plan B. If Joel Quenneville was still the coach, Arnie would still be manning the first line tomorrow, Double Dub would be a healthy scratch and Andrew Raycroft would be between the pipes. So cheer up, folks, things could be worse!

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Well

as much as I love this move, I have to say this is the time for Hensick to step up. He’s been a pretty big disappointment so far, but moving up on a line with Stewart and Smyth is his biggest test yet. He absolutely has to start producing now. He’s not playing on the 4th line trying to produce in 10 minutes of ice time. He’s going to be getting serious minutes. Now, all that said, I love the look of our second line. You have the scorer, the playmaker, the hard worker. If nothing else, it’s going to make the game that much more interesting to watch.

They call me Bubblegum.

by A.J. Haefele on Jan 3, 2009 3:42 PM MST reply actions

Wondering

I have been wondering if being primarily on a line with Darcy Tucker is affecting him. I mean Tucker has been pretty awful and looks like he’s trying hard enough to collect his paycheck. Maybe that rubbed off on Hensick a little.

I’m hoping putting him between Smytty and Stewert, two of the Avs hardest workers, will get him to improve his effort.

Everyone say a little prayer for Marek Svatos, who got screwed on this lineup.

I believe in Peter Budaj

by Jibblescribbits on Jan 3, 2009 4:02 PM MST up reply actions

Svatos

I totally noticed how Svats got screwed with this lineup too! What the hell?!

by Pookie on Jan 3, 2009 4:16 PM MST up reply actions

I’d use the Hejduk time scale on Svatos. In other words, after knee surgery give it at least a year if not two before they are back to themselves. Svatos is still skating with pain and I wouldn’t expect to see him back to his old self without major periods of rest.

by Dario on Jan 3, 2009 8:37 PM MST up reply actions

Svatos got totally screwed in the shake up. I would switch him and Jones, personally – at least for a few shifts. About the first line – I have a feeling Hensick may do just as well as Arnason for some reason. I hope that’s not the case because I do think he works hard but he just isn’t very effective. This is a major shake up for sure. Let’s hope it works.

Red Wings Suck

by texacogirl on Jan 3, 2009 4:16 PM MST up reply actions

Uhhh

Svatos is tied tied for 189th in the NHL for goals scored and worse in points and assists.

On a team that barely shows up for games, he isn’t working any harder than anybody else and is not putting points on the board. In Svats’ defense, neither is anybody else.

by JonHaven on Jan 3, 2009 5:27 PM MST up reply actions

I have to agree – he’s had a LOT of invisible games

Hyphens cause writers more trouble than any other form of punctuation, except perhaps commas.

by David Driscoll-Carignan on Jan 3, 2009 6:55 PM MST up reply actions

Hensick

I agree that its time for Hensick to step up… now or never. I have been a huge fan of his since I saw him in preason, but he just isnt doing well at this level. lets see if being between Smytty and Stewie will give him the spark that he needs.

second line looks great, im happy wols is back where he feels most comfortable. maybe this move can get that line going strong too.

Glad to see Willsie is back too, lets see how he looks out there tomorrow.

by mfured20 on Jan 3, 2009 5:17 PM MST up reply actions

Thumbs up to Granato for making some big changes and for not making others. Despite Dater’s continued malice towards Budaj, Granato is sticking with him. Arnason has had 4 games to make an impact and hasn’t, it’s time for a change and we are getting it. At the same time I find it funny that some of the complaints from the Haters over the last two games is that G has been Q’ing the lines. G had shuffled some people in the third period trying to get something going, but he has been far from doing what Q did. I hope this does the trick for a little while at least.

I don’t know if Svatos is getting screwed, or if it’s more that Jones and Stewie are getting rewarded. Svatos hasn’t been bad, but he’s been kind of invisible (granted I didn’t see the Columbus debacle so i don’t know how he was there).

I wonder what will happen if this doesn’t work? Might we see Wolski as 1st line center? Lappy maybe? Guite (at least he can win faceoffs)?

I'm The Canary - but I'm not cute nor cuddly, and I don't sing.

Now and then we had the hope that if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be PIRATES.
-Mark Twain-

by Americanario on Jan 3, 2009 4:41 PM MST reply actions

Big F'n Deal

Sorry Granato, but changing the combination of players you put out doesn’t matter if you can’t get them to SKATE.

by JonHaven on Jan 3, 2009 4:58 PM MST reply actions

*That’s not intended as a knock on you, DDC.

by JonHaven on Jan 3, 2009 5:09 PM MST up reply actions

no offense taken

Hyphens cause writers more trouble than any other form of punctuation, except perhaps commas.

by David Driscoll-Carignan on Jan 3, 2009 6:55 PM MST up reply actions

I’m totally offended.

by Dario on Jan 3, 2009 8:35 PM MST up reply actions

More offended than this: Avalanche = {()} ?

by JonHaven on Jan 3, 2009 9:25 PM MST up reply actions

My, how misogynistic of you.

softpillowcase

by Selanne on Jan 3, 2009 10:20 PM MST up reply actions

Right

Or, I’ve watched the Avalanche play this season.

http://stats.hockeyanalysis.com/200809/teamhits.php

by JonHaven on Jan 4, 2009 12:10 AM MST up reply actions

I’ve been waiting for Wolski to see shifts at center since….well, Sakic went down. Hell, that was the PLAN when Sakic was going to retire!!!

A couple of things I don’t understand however. First, why hasn’t Wolski taken a shift at center before now? Jones got shifts at center but not Wolski? I’m totally confused by this. Second, why are Foote and Hannan shifting behind the Smyth line? The only two of our defensemen who don’t put the puck on net are playing shifts behind Smyth? Really? I mean if you have to split up Hannan and Foote so Liles can get in on those shifts then do it. There’s no reason that Smyth should waste a shift in front of defensemen who won’t take advantage of this teams largest current asset on offense.

by Dario on Jan 3, 2009 8:43 PM MST reply actions

Your first mistake is trying to understand what Granato is doing. The brilliance in G’s grand scheme is that even he doesn’t know wtf he’s doing. Therefore, it’s an impossible strategy to coach against.

The answer to all your other queries from an Avalanche management perspective is, and I quote, “Huh, I’m not really sure.”

by JonHaven on Jan 4, 2009 12:12 AM MST up reply actions

Along those lines,
Does anyone else think that Rob Blake would have been a better trade deadline acquisition for the Avalanche last year than Adam Foote was?

There were rumors that Blake would have accepted a trade to the Avalanche and for the Avs, it was a matter of one or the other.

They’re comparable in that they’re both veteran defensemen with leadership qualities. They are hard hitting and hard working players that you can match against any other team’s top line on a given night.

I understand the nostalgia and sentimentality of Foote’s return. But, Blake’s still got that booming slapshot and the ability to quarterback a powerplay from the back end that the Avs still seem to be missing (although, I have to comment that J-M Liles et. al. have done a decent job at getting shots to the net of late.)

by c0nquistad0rian on Jan 4, 2009 2:20 PM MST up reply actions

I’ve never been a huge fan of Blake (or Foote, for that matter). Blake really looked like a guy who was about done last year and defensively I don’t know that he’s a #1 matchup guy. And Foote was the guy responsible for getting us past the Wild in the playoffs last year.

I will say this, though – the one guy we all scoffed at 2 summers ago that would really be a boost now: Sheldon Souray.

Hyphens cause writers more trouble than any other form of punctuation, except perhaps commas.

by David Driscoll-Carignan on Jan 4, 2009 2:58 PM MST up reply actions

Blake really looked like a guy who was about done last year

Yep, I was totally against Blake coming back. He looked like he was 1,000 last year. The shot would be nice, but he apparently doesn’t show up when his team was lousy judging by his performance last year, so I can’t imagine he’d be half as productive here as he is in San Jose.

by JonHaven on Jan 4, 2009 5:31 PM MST up reply actions