Behold: Terry Murray's Magic Line Combinator
You think Terry Murray's lines are random? (I don't really, but it has been remarked on. Okay, maybe I do sometimes.) Check out these truly random lines (generated with the help of random.org).
1.
Scott Parse / Alexander Frolov / Justin Williams
Fredrik Modin / Brad Richardson / Wayne Simmonds
Ryan Smyth / Michal Handzus / Rich Clune
Raitis Ivanans / Jeff Halpern / Dustin Brown
2.
Frolov/Kopitar/Harrold
Modin/Richardson/Williams
Smyth/Handzus/Ivanans
scratched: Stoll, Halpern, Brown
3.
Modin/Handzus/Frolov
Smyth/Stoll/Williams
Clune/Richardson/Simmonds
Ivanans/Harrold/Parse
scratched: Brown, Halpern, Kopitar
Frolov/Kopitar/Modin
Halpern/Richardson/Simmonds
Brown/Stoll/Williams
Ivanans/Harrold/Clune
5.
Stoll/Handzus/Kopitar
Clune/Halpern/Williams
Ivanans/Simmonds/Frolov
scratched: Richardson, Harrold, Smyth
6.
Richardson/Kopitar/Simmonds
Frolov/Halpern/Clune
Modin/Stoll/Brown
Ivanans/Parse/Williams
scratched: Smyth, Richardson, Handzus
7.
Richardson/Parse/Simmonds
Modin/Halpern/Ivanans
Smyth/Harrold/Williams
Frolov/Brown/Stoll
scratched: Kopitar, Clune, Handzus
8.
Modin/Handzus/Simmonds
Smyth/Halpern/Brown
Ivanans/Richardson/Clune
Frolov/Parse/Williams
scratched: Harrold, Kopitar, Stoll
9.
Modin/Richardson/Clune
Smyth/Stoll/Brown
Halpern/Handzus/Harrold
Ivanans/Kopitar/Williams
scratched: Parse, Simmonds, Frolov
10.
Frolov/Kopitar/Brown
Richardson/Handzus/Harrold
Ivanans/Stoll/Modin
scratched: Smyth, Simmonds, Parse
11.
Stoll/Kopitar/Brown
Smyth/Handzus/Parse
Ivanans/Richardson/Modin
scratched: Halpern, Simmonds, Frolov
Some pretty plausible line combos come up (Modin/Richardson/Simmonds, Smyth/Handzus/Parse), as well as some bad ideas (Ivanans/Kopitar/Williams). One thing that leaps out at me is that, of all the anomalies, the random selection of healthy scratches bears the least resemblence to reality. Therefore, this time I will limit the pool of potential scratchees (to Parse, Ivanans, Halpern, Harrold or Clune) and force whatever line that contains Ivanans to be called the 4th line.
Also, there's a problem with centers (e.g. the Stoll/Handzus/Kopitar line, also Parse/Frolov/Williams). So this time, I'll set the first three centers as fixed (Kopitar, Stoll, Handzus), and randomly throw everyone else in. After all, Terry Murray does call the Kopitar line #1, Stoll #2, Handzus #3, with #4 being a kind of a grab bag. So maybe this will look more like reality.
I will randomly select the healthy scratches first. Then I will randomly select the wingers and fourth liners from those who remain. Here are the randomly selected scratchees for each of five line-ups:
Harrold, Halpern, Parse
Clune, Ivanans, Halpern
Ivanans, Harrold, Parse
Clune, Parse, Harrold
Clune, Harrold, Parse
(Parse gets screwed)
Now, the randomized lines based on the five sets of scratches. Lines that actually don't suck I'll put in bold. Asterisks for lines we've actually seen (in some cases, I'm not sure but they sound familiar).
Clune/Kopitar/Simmonds
Modin/Stoll/Richardson
Williams/Handzus/Brown
Smyth/Frolov/Ivanans
2.
Modin/Kopitar/Simmonds
Williams/Stoll/Brown
Parse/Handzus/Richardson
Smyth/Harrold/Frolov
3.
Smyth/Kopitar/Richardson*
Modin/Stoll/Williams*
Halpern/Handzus/Simmonds
Frolov/Clune/Brown
4.
Frolov/Kopitar/Brown*
Williams/Stoll/Simmonds
Modin/Handzus/Halpern
Ivanans/Richardson/Smyth
5.
Smyth/Kopitar/Williams*
Halpern/Stoll/Richardson
Modin/Handzus/Brown*
Ivanans/Frolov/Simmonds
Of the second set of line-ups, which is the best?
1 | 0 |
2 | 6 |
3 | 4 |
4 | 5 |
5 | 1 |
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