<body><div><p>When it comes to the sport of hockey, the month of August usually leaves fans looking for something to talk about. Now that the splendor of the NHL Draft and Free Agency have passed, many fans like to think about how the lines will look come opening night. While that is always a fun exercise to think about, it almost never works out the way one imagines.</p><p>This is also true when looking at things from the perspective of the coaching staff. Even their best plans for optimal lines don’t work out the way they anticipate. </p><p>We now continue our 2024 Blue Jackets’ Summer Series by talking about the concept of lines and how it relates to new head coach Dean Evason. In case you missed Part 1 of the series, we talked about how he could revive the goaltending situation. </p><h2>Setting the Scene</h2><p>Coaches have their own style when it comes to many different things in hockey. Whether it’s the systems they run or how they deploy their lines, each has a method to their madness. </p><p>This is especially true when it comes to deciding when to make changes to their lines. These changes can happen midgame if the team is struggling. Or they could be made from game-to-game for any number of reasons.</p><p>Previous head coach Pascal Vincent drew the ire of many fans for the way he deployed lines at key times. While the team clearly prioritized keeping guys accountable, it got to a point where most everyone was benched at different times. It also led to times when key young players saw their ice time go down.</p><p>What can we expect from Evason in this department? We went back and looked at some of his trends from his time with the Wild to find out. Within that analysis, two major themes stuck out.</p><h2>Evason Won’t Hesitate to Make Changes</h2><p>The first thing that stuck out was that Evason showed a willingness to make changes without hesitation if things weren’t going well. Not only were there quick changes, there were big changes.</p><p>There were games in which the lines went into smoothie mode on the blender. Top guys played with fourth liners. It truly was a mix-and-match situation in order to find a spark. </p><p>Evason has spoken on this in the past. One of his beliefs within the team concept is that “anyone can play with anyone.” In his words, they’re “playing with a teammate.” </p><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2tFQBa_0usutkMM00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2tFQBa_0usutkMM00" width="2048" height="1365" ><figcaption>Dean Evason believes that anyone can play with anyone when it comes to lines. ( Amy Irvin / The Hockey Writers)</figcaption></figure><p>From a Blue Jackets’ perspective, this would be the equivalent of having Sean Kuraly center the top line or Adam Fantilli playing on a line with Mathieu Olivier. In Evason’s mind, these combinations could play with each other if he put them together. </p><p>Evason has also shown he’s willing to “ride the hot hand.” If a particular player or line is rolling, he will deploy them more even over the top guys if they are struggling. </p><p>Evason is not one who looks at things from an individual perspective. He’s as team-focused a coach as there is. If he benches a top player, he did so with team in mind.</p><h2>There Will Be Trial &amp; Error</h2><p>The second takeaway from looking back at Evason’s time with the Wild is that there will be trial and error especially at the start. Like Don Waddell when he was first hired with the Blue Jackets, Evason will need time to get to know his players.</p><p>This will play out in how the lines look early. Just because they look one way at the start of camp doesn’t mean that’s how they’ll look on opening night. </p><p>Evason has shown a willingness to use trial and error to find lines that work. Perhaps the biggest example of this concept playing out was when he put the line of Jordan Greenway, Joel Eriksson-Ek and Marcus Foligno together. They hadn’t played together before. But when put together by Evason, they clicked and became a go-to line for the Wild. Without some trial and error, they wouldn’t have played together.</p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Do you remember as we said before the season that line Greenway-Eriksson Ek-M. Foligno has a potential to be one of the best shutdown lines in the NHL. Hey, they're here! <a href="https://t.co/q6QxtTwuEz">pic.twitter.com/q6QxtTwuEz</a></p>— Rono (@RonoAnalyst) <a href="https://twitter.com/RonoAnalyst/status/1354429160295444486?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 27, 2021</a><input type="image" src="empty.gif" style="opacity:0" onerror="s=document.createElement(&quot;script&quot;);s.src=&quot;https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js&quot;;document.body.appendChild(s);"></blockquote><p>This will carry over to the Blue Jackets. Evason will try different combinations to see who might be the next Greenway-Eriksson-Ek-Foligno line that just clicks. Even if the changes are frequent, there is purpose to what he is trying to do.</p><p>In short, Evason will experiment with the lines and won’t hesitate to make big changes when he feels they are warranted. The lines at times may look funky. It may even get frustrating if there are a lot of changes in a short amount of time. But until he knows his team better, trial and error should be expected as he finds out which combinations will work within the system he wants to implement.</p></div></body>

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Blue Jackets’ Lines Will See Trial & Error in 2024-25

When it comes to the sport of hockey, the month of August usually leaves fans looking for something to talk about. Now that the splendor of the NHL Draft and Free Agency have passed, many fans like to think about how the lines will look come opening night. While that is always a fun exercise to think about, it almost never works out the way one imagines.

Blue Jackets’ Lines Will See Trial & Error in 2024-25

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