#to bring mitch (who was out w injury at the time of babs firing) on the roadtrip w the boys for moral support

[3416]

hi again my favourite mitch scholar! i have a quick question. what line did mitch used to play on in his drbut year? and the few years after and how did the progression to him getting to play on auston’s wing looked like? thanks :)

hi there! disclaimer: i wasn't a fan way back when and it's actually pretty hard to find the lineups before about 2019, but from the couple things i've looked up here... this is the lineup from january 1st, 2017, which is about halfway through his first season.

he spent a lot of time playing with jvr and bozak if what i've read/remember is right. his average toi during 16-17 was a little under 17 minutes, and he was fairly productive, esp as a rookie.

for the 17-18, here's a few lineups i could find.

still playing quite a bit with jvr and bozak, and sometimes getting elevated (or demoted) but babcock really hated playing him with auston like...... ever, lol. even when things went stale, like they never played on the same line. you can go through @1634archive for things back from 2016/2017/2018 and see where they got to be on ice for goals at the same time whether they were out there for a shift or a powerplay, but there's not a TON that aren't warmups bc they rlly didn't play together much despite wanting to. you can also look through this thread i made on twitter about all of the goals they've combined on.. though there are zero their first year in the league bc they legitimately were never out there together.

it seems like the first time they were actually put on a line together on purpose was late january 2019 bc the lineup had gone THAT stale that babcock caved, lol. here's snippets of auston and babcock media availability about them getting to play together.. and also here's a radio interview (@3:30ish) auston did around that time too where he says he liked that he was put on a line with mitch and reiterates that he played w him virtually never at 5v5 the first 2.5 years.

the fact that auston even makes a comment about how much babcock doesn't like it is just so...... telling to me, lol. either babcock hated the fact that auston had a preference or opinions about the lineup and was sticking it to him by never giving him what he wanted or... he hated mitch or both or SOMETHING. they clearly had problems... p sure there are even reports babcock literally flew to arizona to smooth things over with him at some point... babcock was a really stubborn and hardass coach who thought a lot of demented shit so lol ANYWYA.

even after that first time they were allowed to play together.. mitch finished out the 18-19 year on jt's wing and started the 19-20 year on it too.

babcock was fired 23 games into the 19-20 season after they went 9-10-4 and were on a 5 game losing streak. here's an article about it. it only came out later about the making a rookie mitch rank his teammates list but just validated the firing even more.

and here we are into january of 2020 after sheldon keefe takes over and mitch gets back from an injury, lol. he immediately was willing to give them a shot and ever since, it's been something that's always on the table when lines need a shakeup.

there are a lot of conclusions you can come to with all this information i feel like, but i hope it was helpful!! this is why it drives me nuts when people act like mike babcock was valid to "keep them apart" aka literally never play them together for years no matter how stale and bad the lineup got like... it got his ass fired, lol. no it was not a valid way to be with two exceptional players. i'm not saying a coach should just listen to their players wishes 24/7, but the inability to accept feedback or take into account preferences is wild and will get you nowhere. i wasn't around for all that, but knowing what we all know about mike babcock now.... idk, i appreciate sheldon keefe's ability to adapt more. people can think what they want about him relying on parts of his lineup as "crutches" but realistically, we don't know about his relationships with the players and 1634 are consistently the best and most dangerous part of the lineup year after year these days.

mitch and auston put up career numbers playing next to each other, and both of them know it and have wanted it since they developed their little warmup routine as literal rookies, and they're hopefully gonna get to play together for a long long time like elliotte said. :)