The Detroit Red Wings’ fourth-line players don’t believe that they are a classic “fourth line” per se, but Christian Fischer, Joe Veleno and Klim Kostin will give the Red Wings a physical edge this upcoming season–and hopefully score some goals.
MLive’s Ansar Khan took note of the remarks made by Christian Fischer and coach Derek Lalonde on Saturday night, regarding the “fourth line’s” purpose and form:
“You don’t want to say the fourth line, because it’s the new NHL, you got to be able to play hockey,” Fischer said. “All three of us can make plays, we can score goals. Me and Klimmie are two pretty big bodies matching up against other teams’ top lines. I think (Saturday) was a great scenario. We score a goal; Newsie puts us out there with a minute left in the period and I think we spent the whole minute in (the offensive zone) and Joe ended up scoring.
“Definitely an identity-type line, bring some energy. When it comes to that you need to be really good defensively. You need those lines. You don’t need (Dylan Larkin) out there for the first PK and killing his energy and playing 25 minutes. It’s a lot of work to do. If we take that load, especially against top lines (and) keep them off the scoresheet that’s a good job by our line. That’s definitely a lot of roles we can be put in.”
Fischer said there’s value playing together as a unit even for one exhibition game.
“We practice every now and then but it’s much quicker, much harder in a game,” he said. “You learn a lot about a guy and his tendencies, where you guys can find each other and where you guys can go to make more space. There’s a lot of small reads that happen in a game. Chemistry is a big deal in this league.”
