Quick thoughts on the Abby line breakup and Sasson playing with DeBrusk and Boeser

The injuries are starting to pile up in the first month of the season, and Vancouver Canucks Head Coach Adam Foote has had to juggle his forward lines. And it looks like he’s done just that again for Thursday night’s matchup against the Nashville Predators.

With their centre depth consisting of Elias Pettersson and three AHLers from last season, Foote has to get creative with his line combinations to help shelter them, while also being mindful of chemistry.

The line with the most chemistry during all this juggling has been the Abby line, which consisted of Max Sasson, Arshdeep Bains and Linus Karlsson. The trio has carried over their success from last season’s Calder Cup Championship run to the NHL. They have played the most 5v5 ice time together (28:19) of any Canucks line this season, resulting in the team’s highest Corsi For Percentage (CF%), 63.8%.

However, it appears that the team will be separating them tonight, as Foote mentioned after today’s morning skate:

“Yeah, Brock’s in. He’ll play his normal spot. Think we’re going to keep Pettersson with [Conor] Garland. They’ve been running a good connection together. We’re going to start Brock [Boeser] with Sasson and put [Jake] DeBrusk with him.”

While it’s a little disappointing to see the Abby line breakup, we actually think Sasson is the best option to put between DeBrusk and Boeser that is currently on the roster.

Before the Filip Chytil injury, DeBrusk and Boeser skated with him, and they were productive during their 5v5 ice time. As a line, they controlled 60.71% of shot share, 68.98% of expected goals, and 68.42% of scoring chances when all were on the ice. And their sample size was significant, as the trio played the second most 5v5 ice time (27:51) on the team this season.

Now, Sasson won’t be able to bring everything to the table that Chytil can. However, if speed and controlled offensive-zone entries were what complemented DeBrusk and Boeser, then Sasson might be the best in-house replacement the Canucks have for these two.

By no means is he the answer to their long-term centre problems, but we’re excited to see what Sasson can do with his speed with two NHL wingers on either side of him with elite shots.

And you know what, maybe the Abby line isn’t completely broken up. We don’t exactly know how the bottom six lines will shake out. We could see the Abby line reformed with Aatu Räty playing between Bains and Karlsson.

We’ll have to wait until pre-game skate to see how the Canucks will lineup tonight in Nashville.