Why the School Bus Line just can’t stop

Experimentation found chemistry on Tampa’s third line

TAMPA, FLA. In Tampa Bay’s third pre-season game, Lightning coach Jon Cooper was impressed with his first glimpse of a new third line.

The combination of 30-somethings Pat Maroon, PierreÉdouard Bellemare and Corey Perry had size and veteran savvy. They drove play into the offensive zone and knew where to be on the ice. And for their first time playing together, they seemed to have a natural feel for each other.

“You’d think those guys have been here (together) for years,” Cooper said at the time.

The pre-season is for tinkering, and Cooper eventually went away from that line. But three weeks into the regular season, coming off a frustrating loss in Toronto, he shuffled his bottom two lines and reunited the trio. He created a line that had been so consistent that it had been the only one he hadn’t tweaked until Saturday against the Stars, when Perry was moved to the top line in part because of Ondrej Palat’s injury.

The line, which includes two offseason acquisitions in Bellemare, the centre, and Perry, didn’t stick at first; they played fewer than seven minutes together in their first regular-season game as a trio Nov. 6 in Ottawa. But the three have meshed to become the Lightning’s most dependable line.

“The thing with chemistry is you don’t know until you try it,” general manager Julien BriseBois said. “We didn’t start the season with those three players as a line together. Sometimes other things look like they would make more sense. And through trial and error, and sometimes through injuries and necessity, you end up trying different things, and sometimes the chemistry just takes, and when that happens, that’s called a good fit.”

The calming influence of Bellemare fits the get-it-north mentality shared by Maroon and Perry, close friends who played together for four seasons in Anaheim last decade. And the result has been a trio that dominates zone time and scores.

“We knew that eventually was going to come,” Bellemare said. “And in most of those games, even if we don’t have points, we are able to create some kind of momentum for the team, and that’s kind of the key. You’re not going to be able to score every shift, but if we can create momentum so that our big guns feel it and come in and bury it after us, it’s a win for us, too.”

Perry opened the season with an unlucky run. He led the Lightning in scoring chances but didn’t get a goal until the 18th game. Now, Perry’s 10 goals are his highest total in four seasons, and Maroon and Bellemare are on pace for their best offensive seasons in years. That has come by prioritizing puck possession, an area at which the Lightning desperately needed to be better when the line was assembled.

“Regardless of the opponent that we’ve been facing, our game hasn’t changed because we know what’s made us successful,” Bellemare said.

Maroon and Perry like to get the puck deep. Both battle for the puck behind the net, and both, particularly Perry, have a knack for finding scoring areas in front of the net. Bellemare is the quarterback, slowing the game for his high-motor linemates. He’s vocal on the ice and helps position Perry and Maroon in the right places.

Maroon nicknamed them the School Bus Line because they carry each other.

“You never know with chemistry in lines,” Assistant coach Derek Lalonde said. “They’ve kind of fed off each other very well.”