It's time for a line change for the Flyers.
Game after game, it was one line truly powering the Flyers offense. When they were snuffed out by the New York Islanders on Monday, Craig Berube finally noticed what was obvious for several games.
The Flyers have a lot of players who can score. But they are not a deep team offensively.
The top line continues to succeed. The rest are floundering. It's time for the Flyers to make a necessary and long overdue change.
The easy solution for the Flyers to expand scoring is to break up the top line. Claude Giroux and Jake Voracek are both averaging well above a point per game. No other Flyers comes close.
That said, breaking up Giroux and Voracek is foolish. Until Monday, only two teams had held the pair off the board and the Islanders were really the only team to completely eliminate the pair.
Brayden Schenn has played well since joining the line.
The other three lines are the ones in question. Wayne Simmonds started strong and has since faded. Sean Couturier and Matt Read aren't producing at the level the Flyers had hoped. Night after night, Vincent Lecavalier and R.J. Umberger are non-existent.
What is the solution? Here is my pitch.
Breaking up Giroux and Voracek is not the right way to attack the Flyers lack of scoring from other lines. Breaking up the other lines is.
For years, Read and Couturier have played together. It's time for the two to be seperated.
Somehow, Umberger has avoided the fourth line. It's time for the move to be made.
Scott Laughton is taking steps in the right direction. Here's his problem: he's playing with Lecavalier and Umberger. The line has had more life, but imagine if Laughton was on a line with Giroux or Voracek. How many points would he have already in just four games.
For the second line, the Flyers should put Laughton with Simmonds and Read. The third line should be Couturier with Lecavalier and Bellemare. And the fourth line should be Zac Rinaldo with Umberger and Jason Akeson.
These are not final lines. The combinations can be altared in several ways. But the idea that Laughton go with players who give him a chance to score, Couturier and Read split up and one of either Lecavalier or Umberger receive limited time as a fourth-line player are things that must happen.
And this doesn't even include the addition of Michael Raffl once he returns from injury.
There are options for the Flyers without taking drastic measures in terms of trades or signings. That said, the Flyers can't last using the same lines over and over again. They need to make a change.
The changes in lines don't promise a change in results. But change can be a good thing. For the Flyers, it's worth a shot.
Kevin Durso is managing editor for Flyerdelphia. Follow him on Twitter @KDursoPhilsNet.
