The Stanley Cup Playoffs...Where the Best 3rd Line Wins
Lord Stanley & The Unknown Knowns
Why was 6 scared of 7? Cause 7-8-9. Get it? Good.
As we approach another NHL trade deadline the eyes of hockey once again turn to the known unknowns. Here’s what a conversation with an NHL general manager sounds like right now:
“ [A]s we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”
For those history buffs, that’s a quote from the former U.S. Secretary of State, who now comparatively seems almost normal, but none the less had no idea what he was talking about. Such is the pundit class of NHL trade deadline.
In Canada NHL trade deadline is a 18 hour telethon. Various pundits sit around elaborate television studios, looking seriously at their phones. Have you ever noticed that the resting facial expression of anyone looking at their phone appears serious? Sitting behind people at a hockey game quickly reveals almost everyone is looking at something pointless. What say you O-Dog or you Elliotte Friedman?
There will be a lot of names thrown around on NHL trade day. Big stars with expiring contracts, aging vets looking for one more shot at the Cup, 3rd round draft picks to be named later that will mysteriously make a name for themselves, well, much later.
So let’s start there. The player to be named later. The unknown knowns. Or unknown unknowns or…..forget it. Lets talk about 3rd line players on Stanley Cup teams and how little attention they get on days like trade deadline or on any day for that matter.
The 3rd-Line Secrets to Roster Depth - Unknown Knowns
Depth is a word thrown around in sports. How deep is the team? It would be obvious now to say the Maple Leafs have, until this season, lacked ‘depth’. The stars go dark in the playoffs. Mathews and Marner where art thou? In the playoffs it all changes. It’s faster and meaner. Scoring titles are won against bad teams. In a 7 game series when tight checking and constant abuse takes its toll on the movie star mannerisms of the dipsy doodlers, its up to the 3rd line to bail you out.
This season, thank goodness, come playoffs the Maple Leafs finally have Nick Robertson, Max Domi and Bobby McMann. You heard it here first. In the Maple Leafs lone playoff series win since the invention of the iphone, it was left to the always reliable un-captained John Tavaras and slick Willy Nylander to find the back of the net.
But without the depth of 3rd line scoring you can’t get far in the NHL Playoffs. There is always one unknown unknown who shows up and saves the day. Line combinations are relatively fluid in hockey, so that’s not so say a hot 3rd liner might not find themselves on the top 2 lines, or as a top 6 forward as the playoffs progress.
Which brings us to our first example: Evan Rodrigues of the Florida Panthers. Here is the Florida Panthers projected lines for game 4 of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final.
Carter Verhaeghe – Aleksander Barkov – Sam Reinhart
Matthew Tkachuk – Sam Bennett – Evan Rodrigues
Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Vladimir Tarasenko
Steven Lorentz – Kevin Stenlund – Kyle Okposo
Evan Rodrigues an undrafted free agent who signed a two-year, entry-level contract with the Buffalo Sabres in 2015, finds himself in the Stanley Cup Finals skating beside two elite forwards.
Anyone who remembers Florida’s Stanley Cup run will remember Rodrigues scoring a handful of clutch goals along the way. In the 2023-24 NHL regular season Rodrigues scored 12 goals, 27 assists for 39 points in 80 games. This season after 61 games his stats are about the same, 14 goals, 13 assists for 27 points. These aren’t McDavid numbers here. Yet in the 2024 playoffs Rodrigues had 7 goals, 8 assists for 15 points in 24 games. That’s a big playoff bump!
Tarasenko the recent champ, former star and older vet looking for another shot at the Cup is on the, wouldn’t you know it, 3rd line. But Tarasenko, for all the hoopla his trade from the Senators generated at the deadline only had 5 goals, 4 assists for 9 points.
Here are a few other fun 3rd line combos from previous Stanley Cup champs.
2016 Pittsburgh Penguins
Bryan Rust-Nick Bonino-Carter Rowney
2019 St. Louis Blues
Pat Maroon - Tyler Bozak - Robert Thomas
Bonino was a dagger in the 2016 playoffs, scoring timely goals. Bonino has never scored more than 18 goals in an season. In 2016 Bonino had 9 goals and 20 assists in 63 games. In the 2016 playoffs Bonino had 4 goals and 14 assist for 18 points in 24 games. Another big playoff bump! Bryan Rust had a coming out party in the 2016 and 2017 playoffs, beating or matching his regular season stats.
The 2019 St Louis Blues are a great story. Patrick Maroon has gone on to make a career of being - Mr 3rd Line Playoff Performer. Few remember Maroon was on the Edmonton Oilers in McDavid’s early days. The young 2017 Oilers made an impressive playoff run, losing in the second round in 7 games to the Ducks. The Edmonton Oilers traded Patrick Maroon to the New Jersey Devils at the 2018 deadline in exchange for a third-round selection in the draft and forward Joey Dudek. The Oilers have been searching for a 3rd line player like Maroon ever since. Enter a much older Cory Perry. Exit Evander Kane.
Also on the 3rd line of the St Louis Blues 2019 team was Tyler Bozak and Robert Thomas. Here is the combo that is essential to a lot of championship wins. The undrafted vet and the young rookie. Tyler Bozak signed with the Blues after being let go by the Maple Leafs. How’s that for a known unknown. Robert Thomas has grown into a top 6 forward in the NHL, shortlisted for Canada’s national team.
Don’t Forget About the Unknowns Come Playoff Time
Leaving the kids out of a playoff line-ups is big mistake modern coaches and GM’s make these days. The list of rookie sensations with 20 regular season games behind them, finding form in the playoffs and winning it all, is long. Let the kids play. This is how legends are born. Patrick Roy rings a bell. Speaking of 2019, Jordan Binnington does too.
Sports is a numbers game. Baseball takes the cake. But in hockey, of the 12 forwards in the line up, the top 6 get a lot of talk. After all the talk of big names moving here or there at the trade deadline, you might want to move your eyes a little further down the line up to see who might score the big goal in the Stanley Cup Finals this year. There are 12 names on that list.
You never know.
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