Columbus Blue Jackets Top Line Great. Just Not Elite, Yet.
The Columbus Blue Jackets top line is great. Just not elite, yet.
Great NHL teams are led by a dominate top line. Some nights you can lean on goaltending or depth to win games but sooner or later, you need your top line to dominate. The Columbus Blue Jackets top line of Artemi Panarin, Pierre-Luc Dubois and Cam Atkinson carried this team to a big 5-4 overtime victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday. They are a truly great line. Just not elite. Yet.
Coach John Tortorella has put every line in a blender this season, except for the top unit. And watching the game last night, it’s obvious why. The three have been glued together, and will for the rest of the season.
The trio isn’t quite to an elite level yet though. It is a top 15 line in the NHL but isn’t on the same level as the Boston Bruin’s Marchand – Bergeron – Pasternak or either of Toronto’s top two lines.
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Although the Panarin-PLD-Cam line strikes fear into the Jackets opponents, it isn’t quite to the level of elite NHL lines. Team’s have to game plan for the CBJ top line but not in an all out, throw everything you have at them, kind of way teams have to prepare for the best of the best.
Elite lines are centered by players better than Pierre-Luc Dubois and have wings that are better than Artemi Panarin and Cam Atkinson. This doesn’t mean that the Jackets can’t win with this top line, it just shouldn’t be confused with the top five lines in the league.
If Panarin stays with the Jackets and Pierre-Luc Dubois continues to progress, this line does have the potential to be an elite line in the NHL in the near future. Atkinson still has a few more years of 30 plus goals in him and Panarin has another seven years minimum to dominate the NHL. It’s just not quite elite yet.
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Enjoy this line though while we have it though because that whole Panarin coming back thing, I wouldn’t bet on it happening.