When an offense is scuffling - at almost any level - the first thing a coach will do to try and kickstart his group is shake up the forward lines.
Even though the Columbus Blue Jackets had won three straight games (albeit scoring only six goals), head coach John Tortorella opted to put 19-year-old Pierre-Luc Dubois between Artemi Panarin and Josh Anderson for Monday's game in Buffalo. Given that the plan was to bring the young Dubois along slowly on the wing to start his career rather than his natural position of center, it was a pretty surprising development.
Nonetheless, the trio has sported an impressive 60.38 Corsi For and 61.83 Expected Goals For percentage while playing together. Despite the line's success, Tortorella couldn't offer an explanation as to why they've clicked.
"I don't know (why it's working)," Tortorella told The Athletic's Aaron Portzline. "I don't know. If I thought it was gonna work, I would have tried it a lot earlier, before three other guys. You just never know."
Prior to putting Dubois alongside Panarin, the latter had spent most of the season with Alexander Wennberg or Nick Foligno as his center.
When asked about the science of line structuring as a whole, Tortorella, as always, wasn't shy about sharing his opinion.
"It's a bunch of bullshit," he said. "I get a kick out of us, as coaches, we talk about this, that and the other thing. 'This is what I'm looking for with that line.' It's a bunch of bullshit. We try things, and if it works, it works.
"We talked in the summer, how we were going to handle (Dubois). Is it too much for him at center, too much responsibility? Let's bring him in slowly as a wing. There you go … coaching. Half the time we don't even know what we're doing until something works. It wasn't working with Nick. I didn't like it with Wenny. Luc was finding his game while we were trying different things. The other night I just said, 'Let’s try 'em.' And there you go."
Tortorella is basically admitting that finding the right line combinations is like throwing a dart at a dartboard and hoping you hit the bulls-eye.
With five wins in a row and a spot atop the Metro Division standings, Tortorella surely doesn't care how his lines fall together, as long as his club keeps winning.
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