Line assembly is whim and wisdom

DENVER - When the Wild visited Calgary three weeks ago, Jacques Lemaire hitched a ride to the game on the media bus.

"Want to see my lines for tonight?" the Wild coach asked.

Lemaire pulled out a legal-sized piece of paper, folded in half. He then flashed what looked to be 30 line combinations: 17-38-10; 12-9-96; 24-67-10; 17-38-96; 11-15-24; 19-9-92; 12-15-10 -- to name a few!

There were so many numbers, the sheet could have doubled as Lemaire's Powerball picks.

As any astute Wild fan knows -- and as every Wild player knows all too well and the Avalanche will soon realize when the puck drops for Game 3 of the Western Conference quarterfinals tonight -- about the only person who could create more line combinations out of 12 forwards is an MIT mathematician.

How many line combinations can be created using 12 forwards?

"I can't figure that out. I'm not that smart, but I bet Jacques's close," center Eric Belanger said.

Told it's 1,320, Belanger said: "Thirteen hundred? Think he has that much?"

Yeah, and he probably hits it by the second period.

Even among his colleagues, Lemaire is famous for tossing jersey numbers into a hat and unveiling weird new concoctions throughout games.

Before a Wild-Vancouver game in February, Canucks coach Alain Vigneault was asked how he planned to match up against the Wild. Vigneault rolled his eyes and quipped, "As you know, Jacques has about 2,000 line combinations in a game, so ..."

As an experiment, that night, Lemaire's lines were recorded. By midway through the first, more than a dozen line combinations were used.

So pay attention tonight because Lemaire typically scrambles his lines more on the road in order to get the right matchup and combat the fact the home team has the last line change (during stoppages, the visiting team must put its players on the ice before the home team, enabling the home team to get the matchup it prefers).

It has worked in the playoffs -- Lemaire is 30-24 all-time on the road.

Staying a step ahead

Lemaire has certain matchups he wants nightly. He'll write down line combinations of forwards he feels comfortable playing against those players.

The goal is to outthink and stay one step ahead of the opposing coach.

"It's looking at the opponent and trying to see the lines that would match," Lemaire said. "But mostly, it's just a feeling you have behind the bench. You've got to expect [Joe] Sakic to go, or [Paul] Stastny, [Milan] Hejduk and [Peter] Forsberg to go. You want to have different combinations of three guys who can play against them.

"You're looking for the right combination, and if your players are not at their best that night, then it's hard to find the right combination and you keep looking."

Players say the bench can best be described as "chaotic."

"One of the things we say in the locker room is, 'Be ready on the bench because any combination can be going out there,'" veteran Brian Rolston said. "We've been with him long enough now that we know he's going to change it up. It can get chaotic at times. But it's important that we stay calm and wait for his command."

Most coaches have set lines of three and will simply call out the center's name -- "Koivu" -- when that line's up next. On the Wild, Lemaire usually yells three names.

It means players better not be daydreaming.

"Everybody's got to be sharp on the bench and be aware anytime there's a line change that there's a possibility you can go on the ice," Marian Gaborik said. "Sometimes it gets a little chaotic. But everybody's used to it. For what it is -- how many different lines he has -- we're pretty sharp.

"But you never know when. You've got to be ready and make sure you know what's going on out there, watching the game and listening for your name."

Gaborik, in particular, must pay attention because he's often double-shifted, especially on the road when Lemaire tries to help escape an opponent's preferred matchup.

No time to rest

There are confusing times. On occasion, Lemaire will try to send out a forward who just got off the ice on another line, and that forward will have to turn around and be like, "Dude, I was just out there."

"That happened to me and Butch [Pierre-Marc Bouchard] in Game 1," Rolston said, laughing. "There's times when we just can't go."

Before games, Lemaire will tell some players whom they'll match up against.

"So if I see they're not on the ice anymore, I'm changing," Belanger said. "Me and Mikko [Koivu], we usually have our matchups. But it's tough. And say one shift I'm with Roli and Butch and the next I'm with Steph [Veilleux] and Branko [Radivojevic], it's a different game. I've got to switch in my mind right away. But good players adjust, and me and Mikko, we've been doing that all year.

"But I'll tell ya, it's hard at times. But that's how he is, so you always have to be thinking, 'Am I going next?'"