Defensive Situation With Returning Starters and Proven Youngsters

Many people have been fighting over what the defense should look like when Jaroslav Spacek, right, returns.

Spacek was injured about a month ago in his first game back from a knee injury. He broke his wrist, and recently got on the ice for the first time since and is now taking shots. He's been wearing the black no-contact jersey in practice for two days, so once the coaching staff feels Spacek's wrist is ready, he'll be on the ice. They're figuring on next week. I think that he may be back Tuesday against Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins.

But once he's back, what do you do with the six guys who have been manning the blue line so well (for the most part)? This is where the speculation is, and this is my answer.

I hope that Spacek plays very well in the waning months of the season, especially the playoffs, where he played so well last year. You might be thinking, "Well, duh!". Understandable. But I not only want him to play well so we can bring home the Stanley Cup, but so we can trade Spacek.

Spacek is a pretty good defensemen, yes, but he is a bit slow and can drift out of position sometimes. At 3.2 million next year, with Paetsch waiting in the wings, I don't think we need him. Probably would even be better off without him.

The rest of the season's pairings that I would like to see, and why.

1) Toni Lydman and Henrik Tallinder, right. Why? Because they quite possibly may be the best pair of defensemen on the ice. They are the rare combination of 1+1 =4. Somehow, they compliment each other so well that they can double each other's abilities. Splitting these two up is like when the Allman brother died. The other was still okay, but not great. These two are great.

2)Paetsch and Kalinin. Kalinin gets ragged on a lot, unfortunately. He's one of those players that is streaky, yes, but when he's good, he's great, and when he's bad, he's okay. He also tends to have pucks bounce off of him into bad places, which is mostly due to unfortunate events rather than poor positioning. Kalinin's actual mistakes normally come from playing the puck behind the net. I have Paetsch here because Paetsch is very fast and his strength is playing the puck. If Kalinin does have a miscue, Paestch's speed helps recover the puck. He's also normally in very good position.

3) Campbell and Spacek. I've already discussed Spacek, above. Campbell is incredibly fast and is the epitome of what Lindy Ruff wants his defensemen to do. He joins rushes well and plays a fast game with good puck control. He gets better with more minutes on ice, and we saw that when he thrived in the playoffs last year when four of his linemates were out on injury. Campbell's major flaw is that he may get trapped in the offensive zone because he may get greedy with the puck.

What about Teppo Numminen? you may be asking. That's the kicker. Teppo's an old man, and he's not so nimble or reliable for long stretches. But, his positioning is incredible, play in and play out. The pairings I have listed above are not set (except for Lydman and Tallinder) because I would like to see a rotation schedule going with Spacek, Campbell, Paetsch, and Kalinin.

With Teppo not being a spring chicken, Spacek being mostly fragile this year, Paetsch being young, Kalinin being so streaky, and Campbell playing his best hockey after a day off, I think this set would work best. This keeps our defensemen really fresh for our five up five down attack that we have become so well known around the league for.

Plus, since Paetsch has been the pointman on the powerplay, we have just gotten better and better with the man advantage.