Reply To: Choosing Forward lines and D partners for your team.

Iceman – I follow the advice from a successful division one college coach as best I can: "Every line should have a checker, and passer, and a scorer." Unfortunately we don't always have enough to fill all the roles on all the lines though! I like to balance D players out as much as possible (stronger with weaker, older with younger etc.) To give the weaker ones more back-up if they make a mistake. I don't stick to these rules hard and fast though, as sometimes players have chemistry together that just can't be ignored.

Things I'm hoping to do this year: Change lines around infrequently or as little as possible, and have players on their correct sides as much as possible (right shot on right W/D, left shot on left W/D etc.) to help with breakouts. Sounds pretty obvious, but in the past I've overlooked this detail (maybe because I played the off-side D in college?).

Hope this helps you make your decisions,
Dave