The NHL's 5 best forward lines so far
Most teams in the NHL have played somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty games at this point. The samples remain relatively small, but the cream is beginning to rise.
The concentration of talent at the NHL level has been dispersed since the imposition of the salary cap at the beginning of the 2005-06 season. Nonetheless there are a handful of dynamite top-lines in the league at the moment.
The surplus of talented forward lines around the NHL makes the task of selecting the five best a near impossible one, and some gangbusters groups didn't qualify for the list that follows. Which just speaks to how many sick hockey players are plying their trade in the National Hockey League at the moment.
1. Anze Kopitar-Justin Williams-Dustin Brown, Los Angeles Kings
At times this season, Los Angeles' top line of Anze Kopitar, Dustin Brown and Justin Williams has been split up. It happened when forward Dwight King started the season playing left wing with Kopitar and Brown, for example.
But this trio, time and again, is ultimately reunited and for good reason: it`s the single best forward line in the NHL this season - and actually has been for a while.
The three members of L.A.'s dominant first line complement each other extraordinarily well. Brown brings a unique combination of speed and size. He plays a physical game on the wing, draws penalties and can finish on the rush or in the slot.
Kopitar is a stellar two-way center with a powerful shot who should probably eventually garner some Selke consideration. Williams, with his under-rated playmaking ability and staunch refusal to lose puck battles, is the glue guy.
Brown, Kopitar and Williams have skated together for nearly 200 minutes at even-strength so far this season. During those 200 minutes they've outscored opponents 6-1 while controlling north of 64% of all on-ice shot attempts. Those are ungodly numbers.
What makes this line's results even more frightening is that it has actually been unlucky in the offensive end (only Kopitar is above 6% in on-ice shooting percentage). So we might realistically expect their offensive production to tick up going forward. Scary thought, that.
2. Jonathan Toews-Marian Hossa-Patrick Sharp, Chicago Blackhawks
Blackhawks head coach Joel Quenneville tinkers with his forward line combinations relentlessly, which somewhat limits the amount of time that Jonathan Toews, Marian Hossa and Patrick Sharp spend skating together.
Toews has spent less than 40% of his even-strength ice-time skating with Sharp and Hossa this season (he often centers Bryan Bickel and Patrick Kane instead). But when Sharp, Hossa and Toews have played together this season they've been a destructive force.
When playing together this year - and they've skated together for roughly 155 minutes - this trio has controlled north of 60% of on-ice shot attempts at even-strength, and has outscored opponents more than two-to-one.
Toews and Hossa are elite two-way forwards who can do a little bit of everything, while Sharp combines his underrated passing ability with a wicked shot. In short he's an offensive force.
This line can make it look too easy:
3. Mikko Koivu-Zach Parise-assorted, Minnesota Wild
The Minnesota Wild are the closest thing the NHL has to the Miami Heat. That comparison isn't totally valid because the Heat employ the most dominant force in their sport in a generation (the Wild do not), but still, Minnesota's NHL team have proven that you can improve rather quickly if you can manage to sign a couple of $100 million players in free-agency.
This season winger Zach Parise and center Mikko Koivu have been joined at the hip. The two forwards have played fewer than 10% of their minutes away from each other and that likely won't change going forward. Certainly not while they're crushing it the way they have been through 20 games.
With both Parise and Koivu on the ice at even-strength the Wild are outscoring opponents almost three-to-one and are controlling 61.5% of all shot attempts.
So far the Wild haven't found a permanent fit to play right-wing alongside their two world beating top-liners. The likes of Jason Pominville, Nino Neidereitter and Charlie Coyle have spent a roughly equal amount of time playing the "Anson Carter role" with Parise and Koivu this season, and unsurprisingly Pominville has been the most successful in that spot.
Actually, with Pominville playing alongside Koivu and Parise the Wild have scored three times without giving up a single even-strength goal against. They've also controlled nearly 70% of all on-ice shot attempts. That sample only accounts for roughly 70 minutes of even-strength ice-time, but still, those are preposterous results.
4. Tyler Seguin-Jamie Benn-assorted, Dallas Stars
Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin have meshed pretty well in the early going. The southwestern United States probably hasn't seen chemistry like this since Walter White was formulating his baby blue.
The Benn, Seguin and whomever line - and whomever has mostly been Rich Peverley, Erik Cole or Valeri Nichushkin - doesn't have the puck possession chops of the other trios on this list (Dallas has controlled roughly 53% of shot attempts with Seguin and Benn on the ice). But you just can't ignore the way it`s scoring goals at the moment, even if it's probably unsustainable over the balance of the season.
When Benn and Seguin are playing together at even-strength, the Stars are scoring goals at a mind-bending rate of 4.9 goals per sixty minutes. In the 60 minutes they've spent with Nichushkin, that number jumps closer to 8, which is unfathomable.
Benn and Seguin have benefited enormously from the percentages and both players have an on-ice shooting percentage north of 14. That means they'll almost surely cool off a bit going forward. But sustainability aside, Benn and Seguin's partnership has transformed Stars games into must watch television for hockey fans.
"What a doozy!"
5. David Backes-T.J. Oshie-Alex Steen, St. Louis Blues
Though they work extraordinarily well together, the St. Louis Blues top-line trio of David Backes, T.J. Oshie and Alexander Steen represent a significant contrast in styles.
Oshie is a welterweight, but he throws his weight around like a Mack truck. Steen is an intelligent two-way player with a polished, silky smooth offensive game. Backes, meanwhile, is a blunt instrument. He's like Freud's concept of the id, but incarnate, and wearing knives on his feet.
When they're on the ice together, Backes, Steen and Oshie are more than the sum of their parts. They're the most inseparable of our "top" top lines, having skated together for 70% of the season. When Steen, Oshie and Backes play together, the Blues control roughly 57% of all on-ice shot attempts and have outscored opponents better than two-to-one.
Steen's personal shooting percentage is due to regress in a major way over the balance of the season and all three carry an on-ice shooting percentage north of 13 (an unsustainable clip to say the least). But the way this line grinds down opponents and dominates play will allow them to remain ludicrously effective even as the bounces begin to go against them.
Here's a good example of how St. Louis' top line functions. Oshie is a bull in a china shop along the boards, Backes essentially wills the puck into the slot and Steen pulls the trigger: