Racki: We aren’t a playoff team yet, so not too worried about that. I’d say he’s more of a third liner. As fire second line, I just ment he could fill in for a short stint if injuries happen and do ok. Wouldn’t want him there permanently though.

Exactly. At first glance Steve-O must have thought you meant Jonesy was a PERMANENT top 6 ability player. GlenX was a player that could fill in a top 6 role when needed due to injuries. Jones is much the same.
Since Steve-O commented on playoffs i would point out that in the playoffs, even with a healthy line up, the strategy of the game itself might call for a player like Jones to move up into a top 6 role. If you are going to go deep it will rely heavily on the ability of the coaching staff to use their assets and adjust their lines and matchups to make the game as conducive to individual and team success.
I would argue that GlenX and Jones can be moved up and handle those roles if the style of play in the competition fits what they as assets bring to the table for the team. In some series’ your top line will be taken to ineffectiveness. A good coach will use the assets he has to to try to respond and avoid his best players having minimal impact. If it means moving up a guy who can punish the defence on the cycle and fatigue the goalie a bit to create opposition mistakes and room for the other line players… so be it.
Its a game within the game. MOst players and coaches realize success of lines and players will be altered game to game and series to series as strategies change. A good GM gives a coach the best assets he can, a good coach analyzes the opposition and type of play to then make a judgment on how to make each line and player most effective within the game and system happening out on the ice.

This is what i said in 06
Detroit. – Yzerman Maltby and Holmstrom would win or lose the series. Yzerman scared me the most because his IQ was better than anyonelses on the ice but his ice time was cut substantially. Even so he WAS the most dangerous player of either team whenever he too the ice.
Edmonton- At that time our defence was stacked in my opinion to the point that we could go with Sammy and Hemsky and Horc as long as Sammy and Hemmer didnt pull the competitive chute –which they didnt.

Against SJ it was a matter of SJ’s top 6 being better than ours but our defence could handle alot of pressure, our goaltending was better, and our bottom 6 was going to punish their d more over a long series.
PLay of the series is Torres eliminating their top 6 advantage by knocking Michalek out of the playoffs. Top six was then even, their d was being battered, we had the better goaltending, our d seemed to be unaffected in any negative way and infact getting stronger.
Our bottom lines brutally thought of just drilling players on the cycle and there was no real competition from SJ after game 5.
At the end of the series …injury admissions came out. Half their d had broken bones, JT had a broken rib and back spasms from a hit as well as a shoulder issue they didnt get into further details about, Chechoo sustained an injury in game 5 that needed treatment for most of the summer.

VS Anaheim, we won every game versus them in the regular season. THat was before we got ROli. Checking line seemed to be the Ducks area of competitive advantage. In response Pisani Peca and Moreau were key to success in the series as they won that key battle.

Carolina didnt have an adavantage, they had domination on the 4th line matchup and Staios was proving to be the weakest link on d as Spacek was often having to make two different reads on plays, one read was what he had to do, the second read was if staios messes up what do i do then. People forget how rusty Roli looked in game 1 before he got hurt. I remember yelling at the TV to just pull him and rest him for game 2. I was hoping it would have two affects, get Roli out who was going down to early and not handling the puck well at all, and also make the Oilers tighten their play up. I also wanted Staios removed in favor of one of the numerous black aces. It was 3-1 if i remember when i first started debating with friends that they should pull him.
Series Weight Recchi Williams depth vs our Dvorak MUrray and LAraque (no disrespect to those 3) I actually thought Dvorak and Murray did better than i had believed they would that series. Torres kept on the body, pisani and Peca won their line battle, Horcoff kept it close versus RodB – a matchup i figured hed lose flat out.

In every series it was a different line and system generating our competitive advantage. Its up to the Coach to be able to understand the opposition and employ a line up and system to put his assets in a successful situation.

Its the GMs job to provide coaches with a few versatile utility forwards who can augment certain parts of the team strategy and line up. Jones is one of those players and we need a few more.

Racki:
The thing I like about Jones is that he can play anywhere from the 2nd line to the 4th line, fairly effectively.

Come on…I like the guy but on a playoff team he shouldn’t be slotting in any higher than the 4th line