When former Chicago Blackhawks coach Orval Tessier assembled the line of Curt Fraser, Troy Murray and Ed Olczyk in the mid 1980s —three players who all weighed more than 200 pounds — Blackhawks play-by-play man Pat Foley dubbed them The Clydesdales.
Thirty-five years later, the Coyotes have assembled a more mobile version of that line with a simple purpose in mind.
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“Everybody wants to pretend that the NHL is no longer a heavy league, but it is,” Coyotes assistant coach John MacLean said. “You saw how St. Louis had to play to win the Cup. That’s why you need some big guys out there that are able to move. That’s the key, it’s still a skating league, but it is a league where if you can have some bigger guys out there, you can wear the other team down.”
When the Buffalo Sabres took a 2-0 lead in the first period of a game at KeyBank Center on Oct. 28, the Coyotes appeared to be in trouble. They were on the final leg of a four-game road, 10-day road trip and the Sabres hadn’t lost at home all season. Then coach Rick Tocchet sent left wing Lawson Crouse, center Carl Söderberg and right wing Christian Fischer over the boards shortly after the goal. The move had the desired effect.
The line altered momentum in the game by establishing a heavy forecheck and pinning the Sabres in their own end. Söderberg was on the ice for a whopping one minute and 12 seconds on that shift because the forecheck was so effective.
Sabres television color analyst Rob Ray had talked about the Sabres’ susceptibility to that sort of pressure at the media dinner before the game, and he was right. After that shift, the Coyotes slowly began to take over the game, eventually outshooting Buffalo 44-26 and rallying for a 3-2 shootout win on regulation goals from Conor Garland, Söderberg and Nick Schmaltz’s shootout goal.
“We have embraced that role,” Fischer said. “Obviously, we’d like to score a goal, but it’s not all about points and goals. Whether we score or not, we’re going to change the energy of the game, wear them out and then (Clayton Keller, Phil Kessel) and those guys come out.”
There is no great origin story to the coaching staff’s decision to combine the three before an exhibition game in Vancouver on Sept. 26.
“We just said, ‘Anybody over 6 feet go on this line,’” MacLean said, laughing. “It just kind of evolved. It was a feeling-out process early in training camp and then when we put them together they seemed to like to cycle the puck. As they have played together, they talk a little more, they understand each other a little more and hopefully, the production will come for all of them. It already has for Carl.”
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Söderberg said the line didn’t take long to find chemistry.
“Sometimes it clicks right away, sometimes it takes a little bit longer, sometimes it doesn’t work out so you never know,” he said. “It helps that they kind of play the same game as I.”
In terms of duties, Söderberg likes to carry the puck a little more, allowing the other two to play north-south games which Crouse said plays to his strengths.
“I know I play better when I am paying a simple, hard game,” he said.
While Fischer has just one assist and Crouse has two goals and four points, Söderberg has four goals and eight points, to rank sixth.
I think what’s really underrated about Carl is his D-zone play and his face-offs,” Fischer said. “He’s a really big guy and a veteran who had a huge part in Colorado’s run last season. I think he is one of the most 200-foot sound players on our team. He loves that net front, loves those greasy, hard-working goals and he loves the battles in the corners. And he is secretly putting up points.”
The three players bring different personalities to the table. Söderberg is soft-spoken and tight-lipped in interviews, even when discussing his remarkable past. He is the same way with his teammates.
“Very quiet,” Fischer said. “Just goes about his business.”
Fischer would be on any local media member’s list of best and most effusive quotes on the team, which is surprising for a 22-year-old.
“We will make up for Carl’s lack of words,” he said, laughing.
Although he is also soft-spoken, Crouse is a skilled and articulate analyst who can break down the game.
“I think for us to be successful it’s just about using our size and our strength to our advantage — being tight in the offensive zone,” he said. “Obviously, you want to get out of the defensive zone as quick as you can but we already feel that we play strong defense as a line. We’re just trying to get down to the offensive zone as fast as we can and create some havoc, create some chances.
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“We notice it when we’re wearing on a team. We can’t get frustrated with a lack of production on the offensive side of things because when we are playing well, we start to hem teams in. When we can go out and put a minute shift in, in the offensive zone, and somehow find a way to (line) change one or two guys, that is bringing out Kells, Step, Kessel and they’re fresh. That’s when you capitalize on those chances.”
Fischer said the line has inherent advantages against some of the lines it is matched against.
“When we’re playing against top-end guys like (Jack) Eichel and (Jeff) Skinner — not to take anything away from their skill — but they tend to poke at a puck while we’re going to go through the body,” he said. “That 50-50 puck? More times than not, we’re going to come up with it out of sheer will power.”
Lines are fluid throughout a season, whether because of injuries or stagnation, but the Crouse-Söderberg- Fischer trio has been a constant, Tocchet said, because they have established “an identity.”
Now all the line needs is a nickname. The Clydesdales may work, but it is not original. Coyotes television analyst Tyson Nash suggested combining the three players’ weights and calling them “The 644.”
We’ll open the floor to suggestions in the poll below and let you know which name prevails. Write-in candidates can be submitted by replying to the tweet or posting in the comments section below.
“It has to be the heaviest line in the game,” Nash said.
The Lawson Crouse-Carl Söderberg-Christian Fischer line (story later this morning) needs a nickname. @TysonNash suggested combining their weights & calling them that. I reprised an old Chicago possibility. Fischer had another idea. What do you think the line should be called?
— Craig Morgan (@craigsmorgan) November 7, 2019
(Photo, left to right, of Söderberg, Crouse and Fischer in Edmonton: Andy Devlin / NHLI via Getty Images)