Have you seen the new Shrek 5 trailer? Many fans of the franchise have noticed something a little... different about the green ogre, Donke. They look like they stole the cartoon style from the Super Mario Bros. Movie and incorporated it into their own.
Let's just say... the like-to-dislike numbers were 114,000 to 224,000 when I copied the URL here. It looks as disastrous as Ilya Samsonov has in net for the Vegas Golden Knights in recent weeks.
While the change to everyone's beloved layered guy isn't sitting well with fans, one particular change has. It involves Brett Howden, Keegan Kolesar, and Ivan Barbashev all playing on the same line. Yes, dear reader. You read that right. An interesting hodge-podge of players coming from all walks of life won Thursday's game for the Golden Knights.
It didn't matter if one was formerly of the top line with Jack Eichel and Mark Stone (on most days). It also didn't matter if the other was part of the hard-hitting fourth line, paired with his buddy, Howden. What mattered was they produced. Boy, did they ever score on Thursday.
The trio combined for four goals and five assists in Thursday's 7-5 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks. In fact, the line wasted no time getting on the scoreboard with this nifty goal. All it took was capitalizing on a turnover and Howden feeding the winger on the right.
"Feeding right, Kolesar — he scores! That didn't take long!"
— Golden Knights Radio (@VGKRadioNetwork) February 28, 2025
"The Knights have a 1-0 lead!"
🎙 @Dan_DUva
Keegan Kolesar strikes just over one minute into the game to give Vegas an early lead. pic.twitter.com/oUkxjKsIYi
Much prettier than Shrek's new design, eh?
What else can this new line do?
One thing that stands out with this group is the forechecking. All three players can create turnovers and lead the rush. Sometimes, those turnovers will come in the defensive end like the first goal, leaving their opponents in trouble. With all three on the same line, they can apply additional pressure and swing the momentum in Vegas's favor.
With that comes plenty of speed, where all three players are good skaters. Howden and Barbashev can fly down the rink in transition by themselves. However, Kolesar isn't a slouch skating-wise, either. He also fits in well in transition and pressures his opponents. That was evident in the game's first goal, when Howden found his man for an easy shot.
Finally, this line hits hard. Like, we're talking about a combined 351 hits between the three players. That kind of hard. It's the type of checking you want to see from a group, especially with the other units more focused on either offensive finesse or two-way play. Do you need to break your opponent down early? Have no fear because the third line is here.
Does this line have staying power?
Absolutely it does. The three showed incredible chemistry together, playing like they've been grouped for 100 or more minutes of ice-time. What's funny is they don't have much time playing together. In fact, they've only had 14:40 of TOI going into Thursday, according to Natural Stat Trick.
Bruce Cassidy isn't one to suddenly remove a hot line and tear them apart, though. He's known for letting it rip and run. It doesn't matter if it's Barbashev, Eichel, and Stone playing together or if the fourth line works. Sticking with the hot hand has served this team well in 2024-25. That could be the case considering the trio hadn't done much before the 4 Nations break.
Yes, there was a call before regarding Stone being put on the same line as his original buddies from Game 1. However, it looks like the Russian winger is fitting in just nicely with his new linemates. The hard-hitting trio can score goals and forecheck endless amounts of plays to their heart's content. It could lead to getting crucial points as they did on Thursday, looking much better than the new Shrek.