San Jose Sharks Roundtable: Where To Put The Skill

April 16, 2012; San Jose, CA, USA; San Jose Sharks center Joe Thornton (19) and goalie Antti Niemi (31) enter the ice before game three of the 2012 Western Conference quarterfinals against the St. Louis Blues at HP Pavilion. Mandatory Credit: Jason O. Watson-USA TODAY Sports

Hey everyone.  Here at BOT we’re going to sporadically do quick Q&A with our writing staff.  Today’s topic: potential line combinations.

Blueline Boomer:  Hey guys.  I’m thinking about the starting lineups and am wondering who the “Big Line” will be.  I like Thornton in the middle for size and passing with Havlat and Marleau on the wings.  We could see something like what Heatley had with those two guys in their first season together. Only less visors. What do you think?

King Shark: You want to have the lines spread out just enough to keep you scorers fresh and the opponent always guessing…Thornton, Marleau, Pavelski are a solid front line…put Couture on the second line just to reinforce it alongside Clowe and Havlat…

Blueline Boomer: Right, but then if we’re spreading it around shouldn’t we have Pavelski maybe move to the 3rd line and put someone like Wingles up on the big line?  Thornton’s shown an ability to bank pucks in off of other players’ shins.

Ryan Bayer: Hopefully Pavelski can get the lower decks or lower lines to start putting numbers up on the scoresheet.  I think that those two lines need to be on the hot seat this year and take some of the scoring load off the the top two lines for a change.  Balance out the scoring on all four lines.  I mean is this era’s NHL, scoring is Paramount and the league is four line league, not two.

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