Carter, Zherdev, Van Riemsdyk Make Up the Philadelphia Flyers Detention Line

Flyers head coach Peter Laviolette has tried all season to get the right forward combinations so he can create some stability on the top three scoring lines.

Daniel Briere, Ville Leino and Scott Hartnell, aptly named “The Redemption Line,” were kept together after last season’s fantastic playoff run, but the other two scoring lines have had players moving around just about every game.

Recently, Laviolette put together the combination of Jeff Carter centering Nikolay Zherdev and James van Riemsdyk and the results have been outstanding. In the last two games they have combined for 6 goals, 4 assists, 28 shots and a plus/minus rating of plus-6.

Both Zherdev and van Riemsdyk have been healthy scratches multiple times this season and, even when they dress, have been given limited ice time for many of the games they do play. Although, now that they are with Carter, it appears they could go from the detention hall to being the teacher’s pet. 

Now one could argue that Jeff Carter has never been in Laviolette’s doghouse, therefore, the moniker that I chose does not hold true. He consistently gets 18 to 20 minutes of ice time a game and has never been a healthy scratch in his entire career.

However, I would counter that Carter is often seen not taking the man in his own zone (as was observed in today’s game on Derek Stepan’s goal) so perhaps he can be considered the Eddie Haskell of the trio.

And that brings me to my concern about putting these three players together. They created quite a few scoring chances against the Rangers today, but they were also on the ice for many of New York’s prolonged shifts in the Flyers’ defensive zone. In fact, one of those shifts was during the aforementioned Stepan goal.

Nevertheless, it appears that Peter Laviolette is going to let them work through their defensive issues, as they were put back on the ice after that goal and the subsequent timeout, but I’m sure that leeway will only be given if they consistently produce on offense.

That being said, I fully support the current line structures as I’m willing to trade some defense for offense if it makes all three players are productive. This is especially true given the depth the Flyers have on the blue line and their solid goaltending this season.

I’m also partial to Mike Richards getting a talented player like Claude Giroux on his wing rather than Dan Carcillo or Darroll Powe which, when added to Andreas Nodl, puts the Flyers’ playmaking captain on a virtual checking line.

During his tenure with the Flyers, Peter Laviolette has been adept at creating the right line combinations and it appears he may have struck gold again with The Detention Line.

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