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Just over a month ago, Patrick Eaves found himself as a healthy scratch, excluded from the lineup as his Dallas Stars took on the New York Islanders.
Over the course of his career, Eaves has occasionally found himself out of the lineup, watching his team play. In the 31-year-old's 13-year career, he's never played a full 82-game season, consistently marred by injury or pushed aside by the talent level around him.
This season, Eaves has dealt with both. Earlier this season, Eaves suffered a lower-body injury, placing him on the injured reserve list and knocking himself out of the lineup for 15 games. He's also periodically served as Dallas' healthy scratch, watching his linemates play from the press box.
But, recently, Stars head coach Lindy Ruff has mixed his lines around. Patrick Sharp, who had been playing as the Stars' top right wing alongside Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin, was bumped down to the second line to help boost that line's scoring ability, as Jason Spezza has been out of the lineup since he suffered an upper body injury on Feb. 4 against the Colorado Avalanche. And with that vacant spot as the top-line right wing open, Ruff decided to slide Eaves right in as the top-line right wing.
The move has worked. In the last three games that Eaves has been penciled in as Benn and Seguin's wing, he's produced four goals and two assists, and in Dallas' most recent effort against the Chicago Blackhawks, Eaves scored a hat trick in the first period, easily giving the Stars a 4-2 win.
"It was awesome," Eaves said following his hat trick effort. "I got some really good looks from my linemates. I just had to put them in. They did all of the work."
Eaves may appreciate his brand-new linemates, but those brand-new linemates certainly appreciate Eaves. Eaves complements both Benn and Seguin very well. The two leading scorers for the Stars work really well with the puck on their stick, but Eaves works well without the puck. He consistently places himself in the right position for a scoring opportunity, he crashes towards the net and sets screens and he works hard on the forecheck to win pucks. That is exactly what players like Benn and Seguin need. And the fact that Eaves cashes in on his scoring opportunities certainly doesn't hurt.
"He is really shooting them right now," Tyler Seguin told Dallas Stars' beat writer Mark Stepneski following the win over the Blackhawks. "He's got a quick release, and when you find those open spots good things are going to happen. He's dialed in right now."
Anytime you play with a combo like Seguin and Benn, you are going to play better hockey. So far this season, Eaves has only played 45:28 minutes of even-strength 5-v-5 time with Seguin and 45:27 minutes with Benn. But during that time, Eaves' offensive production has increased dramatically. When he's played with Seguin, his shot attempts per 60 minutes of even-strength 5-v-5 play increases from 60.86 without Seguin to 67.30 with Seguin. And when Eaves plays with Benn, his shot attempts per 60 minutes of even-strength 5-v-5 play increases from 60.65 without Benn to 68.65 with Benn. And of Eaves' six even strength points this season, four of them came when he was on the ice with Seguin, and three came when he was on the ice with Benn.
"Anytime you play with those two playersâthey're (just) special," Eaves said. "You can't teach what they do. I just try to let them do their thing and go get open, and they usually find me. It's a great opportunity. I'm loving every minute of it, and hopefully we can keep winning games while doing it."
But, to give Eaves credit, he doesn't hinder the offensive production of either Seguin or Benn when they are on the ice together. When Seguin plays without Eaves, he produces 66.05 shot attempts per 60 minutes during even-strength 5-v-5 play, slightly less than the 67.30 shot attempts he produces when he plays with Eaves. And when Benn plays without Eaves, he produces 66.79 shot attempts per 60 minutes during even-strength 5-v-5 play, slightly less than the 68.65 shot attempts per 60 minutes he produces with Eaves. That shows that Eaves is actually working well with both Seguin and Benn.
Patrick Eaves (right) has actually helped out Jamie Benn during his brief stint on the top line.
"He's really played well," Ruff said of Eaves. "He's a guy that goes to the net and a guy that shoots the puck real well. He knows where to go. He's in the right place a lot, and the pucks finding the back of the net for him right now. That's helping (Benn and Seguin) out."
According to Puckalytics, the trio has played together for 37:14 minutes of even-strength 5-v-5 time. That's a small sample size, especially to forecast overall play for the remainder of the season. But in that short amount of time, they have produced three goals and 72.52 shot attempts per 60 minutes of play. They may not be able to maintain that production for the better part of the season, but Ruff would be wise to allow the relationship between this new trio to continue on for a bit longer.
If it works out in the long run, the Stars will only improve. When Spezza returns from injury, Dallas will have two 20-goal scorers on their second line. That would make the top-six for Dallas extremely lethal, and we haven't even mentioned Cody Eakin and Mattias Janmark as a force in the bottom six.
Early indications suggest Eaves can succeed on the first line. And maybe it won't be as dramatic as it has been in the first few games. But we do know one thing: Eaves won't find himself as a healthy scratch anytime soon, because he has found a spot on Dallas' top line.
Tommy Chalk writes about the NHL for FOX Sports. You can follow him on Twitter @Tommy_Chalk
Statistics provided by Hockey Analysis.
