Healthy Lineup Offers Balance And Load Up Options

(Photo Credit: SinBin.vegas Photographer Brandon Andreasen)

The moment it became clear Mark Stone would be able to rejoin the Golden Knights lineup for Game 1 of the playoffs, Bruce Cassidy knew he had options.

Vegas had just ripped off a run of 22-4-5 over the previous two months that saw them win the division and clinch the #1 seed in the West, and they did most of it with a similar lineup, especially since the Trade Deadline.

It featured a top line anchored by Jack Eichel, a 2nd line with William Karlsson and Reilly Smith, and a 3rd line featuring Chandler Stephenson. So, with Stone coming back, a tricky decision had to be made.

Do you upset the apple cart a bit and stick the captain back on the top-line in his rightful place next to $10 million Eichel, or do you try to fit him into what’s been working?

Before the series even started, Cassidy opted to go for Option 2, offering a much more balanced lineup while also allowing for some shelter for Stone as he worked his way back up to peak form.

The lineup was essentially built around four sets of pairs. Jonathan Marchessault and Eichel, Smith and Karlsson, Stone and Stephenson, and Nic Roy and Keegan Kolesar. It offered a balanced top-nine with an identity fourth line that can hold its own even against the opposition’s best line. Through three games, Cassidy has stuck with it, only opting to shuffle the wingers moving Brett Howden up and Ivan Barbashev down.

Balance is all good and well though, until a goal is needed, and that’s where the healthy lineup with Stone available offers a ripcord for Cassidy, one he pulled at the very end of regulation and multiple times in the overtime sessions.

When wanted, Cassidy can opt to load up his lineup and roll out two lines with incredible familiarity.

The first is the classic Misfit Line of Marchessault, Karlsson, and Smith. Old faithful, as it were, found themselves on the ice for a few crucial offensive zone shifts late in the first OT and in just 2:09 of ice time generated five shots on goal, six scoring chances, and 0.57 expected goals.

The other is the mega line Vegas went to the first time they ever saw Eichel and Stone on the ice at the same time, Stephenson-Eichel-Stone. That line has played 250 minutes together in the past two seasons and has absolutely dominated in every statistical category. With 21.9 seconds left in regulation, Cassidy reunited them looking for a spark, and that’s exactly what he got.

Then, right after he put the Misfits together in OT, the next O-Zone draw saw Eichel, Stone, and Stephenson on the ice trying to secure that game-winning goal.

So now, not only do the Golden Knights have a functioning balanced lineup, they also have the option to load up and lean on two dominant lines of yesteryear to put even more pressure on opposing defenses.

In Game 3, it came through in regulation and nearly did in overtime. Expectations should be high it comes through at some point moving forward as well.