In ice hockey, three forwards – centre, right wing and left wing – operate as a unit called a line. The tradition of naming the lines extends back to the inaugural 1917–18 NHL season, when Didier Pitre, Jack Laviolette, and Newsy Lalonde of the Montreal Canadiens were dubbed the "Flying Frenchmen Line". [1]
Line name | Members | Team | League | Description | Date | Refs. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
The Black Aces | Herb Carnegie, Ossie Carnegie, Manny McIntire | Quebec Aces | QSHL | Named as they were the first all-black line in the Quebec Senior Hockey League. | 1940s | [2] |
The Bonanza Line | Joé Juneau, Adam Oates, Dmitri Kvartalnov | Boston Bruins | NHL | Named after the western television show Bonanza. | 1992–1993 | [3] [4] |
The Century Line | Syl Apps Jr., Lowell MacDonald, Jean Pronovost | Pittsburgh Penguins | NHL | Named by their team publicist after the line scored over 100 goals in the 1973–1974 season. | 1973–1976 | [5] [6] |
The Coneheads | Mark Pavelich, John Harrington, Buzz Schneider | United States Men's National Team | Named after a Saturday Night Live sketch entitled " Coneheads". Part of the Miracle on Ice team that won the gold medal at the 1980 Winter Olympics. All three grew up playing pickup games on ponds in the Iron Range of Northeast Minnesota. | 1980 | [7] [8] | |
The Dynasty Line | Guy Lafleur, Steve Shutt, Pete Mahovlich (later replaced by Jacques Lemaire) | Montreal Canadiens | NHL | 1970s | [9] | |
The Espo Line | Wayne Cashman, Phil Esposito, Ken Hodge | Boston Bruins | NHL | Named after their center, Esposito. | 1967–1975 | [9] |
The French Connection | Gilbert Perreault, Rick Martin, René Robert | Buffalo Sabres | NHL | Named after the Oscar-winning 1971 film, as all three players were French-Canadian. | 1972–1979 | [10] [11] |
The Grind Line | Kris Draper, Joe Kocur (replaced by Darren McCarty after 1998 season), Kirk Maltby | Detroit Red Wings | NHL | late 1990s | [12] [13] | |
The Grumpy Old Men | Kirk Muller, John MacLean, Mike Keane | Dallas Stars | NHL | Named after a reference to the 1993 film Grumpy Old Men. When the three veterans played for the Dallas Stars in 2001, they had 105 years and five Stanley Cup wins between them. | 2001 | [14] |
The HBK Line | Carl Hagelin, Nick Bonino, Phil Kessel | Pittsburgh Penguins | NHL | Named after the first letter of the surnames of all three players (Hagelin, Bonino and Kessel).
The line’s success during the 2016 Stanley Cup playoffs caught the interest of WWE legend Shawn Michaels, who endorsed the use of his “HBK” moniker for the line and accepted an invitation from the Penguins to attend Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals at the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh. |
2016 | [15] |
The Kid Line | Dustin Penner, Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry | Anaheim Ducks | NHL | Named after the low ages of the three players after success in the 2008 playoffs. | 2005–2007 | [4] [16] |
The KLM Line | Vladimir Krutov, Igor Larionov, Sergei Makarov | Soviet national team | Named as an acronym of the patronyms of the three players. Together with the top defensive pairing of
Slava Fetisov and
Alexei Kasatonov, the five players were collectively known as "The Green Unit" because of the green jerseys they wore in practice.
The KLM Line was the top line on the dominant Soviet national teams of the 1980s. They won gold medals at the 1984 and 1988 Winter Olympics. |
1980s | [17] | |
The Kraut Line | Milt Schmidt, Woody Dumart, Bobby Bauer | Boston Bruins | NHL | Named for the German ancestry shared by all three, who grew up together in Kitchener, Ontario. | 1936–1947 | [18] |
The Lotto Line | J.T. Miller, Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser | Vancouver Canucks | NHL | Named after the Canadian lottery Lotto 6/49, as their numbers are 6, 40, and 9 respectively. | 2019-current | [19] |
The LCB Line | Bobby Clarke, Bill Barber, Reggie Leach | Philadelphia Flyers | NHL | 1970s | [20] [21] | |
The Legion of Doom | Eric Lindros, John LeClair, Mikael Renberg | Philadelphia Flyers | NHL | Named as all weighed over 220 pounds, and ranged from 6'2" to 6'4" tall. | 1994–1997 | [11] |
The LILCO Line | Billy Harris, Clark Gillies, Bryan Trottier | New York Islanders | NHL | Named after the Long Island Lighting Company because they lit the lamps so often with their goal-scoring. | 1970s | [22] [23] |
The Mafia Line | Phil Esposito, Don Maloney, Don Murdoch | New York Rangers | NHL | Named for the " godfather" Phil Esposito and his two " dons", Don Maloney and Don Murdoch. | late 1970s | [10] |
The Merlot Line | Daniel Paille, Gregory Campbell, Shawn Thornton | Boston Bruins | NHL | Named after the color jerseys that the fourth line wore during practice | 2010–2011 | [4] [24] |
The Perfection Line | Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, David Pastrňák | Boston Bruins | NHL | 2014–2022 | [25] [26] [4] | |
The Production Line | Sid Abel, Gordie Howe, Ted Lindsay | Detroit Red Wings | NHL | Named in reference to their prolific goal production as well as the automotive industry in Detroit. The line was put together by head coach Tommy Ivan in 1947. | 1947 | [11] [27] |
The Punch Line | Hector "Toe" Blake, Elmer Lach, Maurice "Rocket" Richard | Montreal Canadiens | NHL | The trio was the top line on the Montreal Canadiens from 1943 to 1948 and won two Stanley Cups. | 1943–1948 | [11] |
The S Line | Nels Stewart, Babe Siebert, Hooley Smith | Montreal Maroons | NHL | 1927–1932 | [28] | |
The Triple Crown Line | Dave Taylor, Charlie Simmer, Marcel Dionne | Los Angeles Kings | NHL | Named after their achievements; in 1980–81, the trio combined for 328 points to become the first line in NHL history where each player scored 100 points or more in the same season. | 1979–1984 | [29] [11] |
The Trio Grande | Mike Bossy, Clark Gillies, Bryan Trottier | New York Islanders | NHL | The Trio Grande won four Stanley Cups with the New York Islanders in the 1980s, and all three are in the Hockey Hall of Fame. | 1980s | [22] [30] |
The Uke Line | Johnny Bucyk, Bronco Horvath, Vic Stasiuk | Boston Bruins | NHL | Named for their common Ukrainian heritage. | 1957–1961 | [31] |
The West Coast Express | Markus Näslund, Brendan Morrison, Todd Bertuzzi | Vancouver Canucks | NHL | Named as a reference to the local commuter rail service of the same name. | 2000–2006 | [32] [33] |