Hershey’s Prospects Are Putting King in a Playoff Bind

The playoffs show the true colors of a head coach and how they manage a game or a series. How do they use ice time, a finite resource that must be divided among four forward lines and three defense pairs? Do they roll the lines, lean on one, or match them with the opponent and the situation?

Every game is a battle, and every series is a war, so how does a coach manage that? Derek King made it clear early on in the playoffs how he wants to coach the Hershey Bears. “I just roll them.

I try not to match lines,” he noted after Game Two win over the Bridgeport Islanders, a game where they won 5-2 to win the series. In the win over the Islanders, he rolled all four lines. In the recent game against the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins, he didn’t.

“I try to manage it, it just depends on situations,” King mentioned after the victory that evened up the series at one win apiece. This series against the Penguins is putting King to the test. He wants to ice a balanced team and avoid overworking any lines.