Gaborik and Richards… NHL’s Peanut Butter & Jelly

When I was younger, I loved it when my mom would make me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  They went well together, and plus, it was how it was supposed to be done, right?  Well, one day my mom had no jelly (insert gasp here), so I was forced to switch things up.  I scoured the fridge for a replacement. Mayonaisse? Yuck. Mustard? Yuck. Pickles? Gross.  Ham? Ew.  Etc… But hey, I attempted to find a suitable replacement rather than just give up.  So, I sucked it up and ate a peanut butter sandwich. All on its own.  And it was darn tasty. Trust me, there’s a correlation between this and Gaborik and Richards. 

The next day, my mom came home with a jar of jelly.  Now, me being the ingenious person that I am, I thought to myself “Self, if peanut butter and jelly taste good together, and peanut butter tastes good by itself, wouldn’t it stand to reason then that jelly would taste equally as good by itself?”  (I was 10 at the time and perhaps a very forward thinker. Or just really hungry. Either way, I’d consider it genius.)  So, I set upon making a jelly sandwich. And gosh darnit, wouldn’t you know, it was equally as delish as the peanut butter sandwich.  The one great combination of peanut butter and jelly could be divided into two great stand alone sandwiches.

This leads me to dynamic duo of Gaborik and Richards. (Please, don’t attempt to decipher my train of thoughts. Unless you are a qualified professional, then by all means, do so. Pro Bono, of course.)  While they look good together on paper, are they really a good match on the ice together?

Take the game from Ottawa on Saturday. Richards had some pretty nice chemistry with his new linemates, Callahan and Dubinsky.  Specifically, Richards and Callahan seem to have created some good juju between each other.  Gaborik seemed to work well with Stepan and Wolski. Richards and Gaborik each produced 3 points in that game. They each played like they are ‘expected’ to play, just not together.  They generated offense and they made things happen. There was chemistry on each of their lines.  However, on the power play, Richards and Gaborik manage to generate chemistry between each other. Mind boggling.  I was happy to see that Tortorella kept those lines pretty much intact for the next game against the San Jose Sharks.  Although the game had it weak points, those two lines were spot on. They seem more comfortable on separate lines, than on a line together. Less pressure to produce, maybe?  I’m not sure. 

Either way, they’ve proven that together they are good, but separate, they are even better. Like peanut butter and jelly.