Heika: Yahtzee-like line shuffling paves way to needed win for Stars

So you want to be an NHL coach, eh buddy?
Well, hold that thought for a minute.
We all have napkins and crayons, so mixing and matching lines seems pretty easy from the couch. But what Jim Montgomery is going through right now shows just how complicated this process can be.
There are injuries to consider, and opponents, and who's hot and who's not … oh yeah, and how much you need a win against a struggling team while you yourself are struggling, and the incredible vacillations in energy that come with that challenge.

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The Stars beat the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday, 4-2, but it was not without gyrations and machinations that could boggle the minds of physicists in Bern. Injuries to Alexander Radulov and Valeri Nichushkin forced Montgomery into some tough decisions in aligning his lineup. The fact the team sent down Roope Hintz and recalled Justin Dowling also had to be considered. And there was that three-headed decision monster at the bottom of the defense that also was growling in the coaches' meetings.
So the first-year NHL bench boss mulled his options during the day and came out with 11 forwards and seven defensemen instead of the usual 12 and six. He could have played Gemel Smith and scratched a defenseman, but there was something about having Roman Polak, Julius Honka and Connor Carrick all at his disposal that was intriguing.
And truth be told, he was probably a little enticed by the chemistry of it all.

How would his lines fit together?
How would his matchups work against a desperate Kings team that had lost four straight?
How engaged would he have to be in every element of the game knowing his own team had lost three in a row?
Turns out the answers were varied and sundried -- and kind of fun.
"I enjoyed the 11 forwards tonight. I felt I could get everybody involved in the game," Montgomery said. "The matchups got a little more difficult, as I felt they were holding [Anze] Kopitar's line a little longer than I expected a couple of times which enabled them to get some matchups that they wanted. But, all in all, I liked it.
"The seven defensemen," he added, "didn't seem to work all that well, though."
Montgomery has said he likes the challenge of trying to get what he wants from a game. He has shown he has no trouble juggling lines from game to game and practice to practice. He has shown he loves to coach. So why not do some coaching?

The Stars on Tuesday looked like a Yahtzee game with half the scorecard filled. Should I go for the Full House or Four-of-a-Kind? Will Chance be an option if I don't hit this Long Straight?
Tyler Pitlick received a rare chance to play on the top line with Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn. He also saw ice time with Justin Dowling and Jason Spezza, as well as Dowling and Mattias Janmark.
"I had shifts with them and then they would put someone else out there to give me a breather a little bit," Pitlick said of Benn and Seguin. "Then, I would go with a different line and then back with those guys. You know, you've got to be ready to play with whoever. I think that in the long run it's going to benefit us if things aren't going right, he can switch us up and have a little bit of familiarity with some other players."
And maybe that's the logic in where all of this is heading. Montgomery has talked about forging an identity where all four lines are important and all three defense pairs can fill different roles. He said he knows he has to find a way to get the best players on the ice more often than not, but that he also wants balance and waves of energy -- and options.
He got that Tuesday.
Jason Spezza scored a goal off a nice shift with Dowling and Jason Dickinson, and added an assist on a Blake Comeau goal where Devin Shore was the other wing. Shore added an assist on a John Klingberg goal when he was on a line with Dickinson and Brett Ritchie.
It wasn't perfect -- Montgomery called it not a 60-minute game, but about 37 minutes worth of good play by the Stars. It wasn't even pretty -- the coach said he felt the game was messy at times. But it was a win, and it was a lab where the mistakes can now be studied and corrected.

If Alexander Radulov is ready to return from a lower-body injury Thursday against Anaheim, he is going back on the top line, the coach said. If that happens, Montgomery will return to 12 forwards and six defensemen, and you might see a whole lot less in the dice roll department.
But even if that change is piled upon the changes that happened Tuesday, the Stars should feel better about … well … changing.
It seems that's inconsistency is going to be one of the things that's consistent about this season -- but it should be plannedinconsistency with an eye toward consistent performance.
"I think you just have to be ready whenever your name is called," said Comeau. "We played 11 forwards, there's different line combinations, different guys going out. I thought it was a good job by the guys being ready to go with whoever was going to play and whatever position we were put in.
"I thought, for the most part, everyone stepped up and did their job."
And if they can get used to doing that, it will make the job of coaching considerably easier.
Or, at the very least, just not as impossible as it sometimes seems.
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Mike Heika is a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on Twitter @MikeHeika,and listen to his podcast.