One of the most loathed aspects of Rick Tocchet’s tenure as head coach of the Lightning was line juggling. Lines were made to be broken in order to spark or punish players on any given night..
And while Guy Boucher has the players attention and enthusiasm, he also has made it clear he plays around with line combinations quite willingly. Mostly it’s because his system employs forwards in a non-traditional fashion.
Damian Cristodero at the St. Pete Times got a telling quote from Coach Boucher:
In fact, Boucher said he calls his forwards F1, F2 and F3.
“The thing I hate most is you’re this or you’re that,” he said. “It limits people to certain areas or aspects of the game. I like to keep it open.
“You start with a left wing, a right wing and center man on your faceoffs. But when you backcheck, when you forecheck, you don’t always end up in the perfect spot you’re supposed to.”
While fans want to see Vinny Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis reunited, don’t get to comfortable with any line combination that you see on ice… Or look at any player as playing “out of position” by playing on wing or at center.
