Glass, who is learning how to play with each and every one of his new teammates after being acquired from Vegas in the offseason, also knows the balance of finding the right linemates. What does the 22-year-old centerman look for when it comes to chemistry?
"I think just communication," Glass said Sunday. "When you're talking, I feel like that's just the best key to whatever you're doing, especially when you get to the bench. Maybe I don't see something, but you see something, and you can just communicate that to me. But I feel like once you're working hard, all of our skillsets take over.
"I feel like as hockey players playing in the NHL, we're all skilled enough to play, but I feel like when the compete level comes in, that's what puts players over the top. If you're working your hardest and you're getting pucks back, that's when your skill takes over. I feel like that's kind of how my game is, which is winning puck battles, kind of doing those things, and like I said just communicating. I think that's the biggest key in sports, and just competing, that's how I was raised and I play."
Hynes will have two more opportunities to test out some combinations up front and pairs on the backend - Nashville will travel to Carolina on Tuesday for a matchup before hosting the Hurricanes in their preseason finale on Saturday - and the head coach will take every chance he can.
While Hynes says there's never really a "eureka moment" when it comes to finding that perfect balance in a line or pair, there are plenty of indicators over time that will produce the correct equation.
Let the evaluation continue.
"I think it's more of how productive are they in the game?" Hynes explained. "Do they win their shifts? Are they creating more than they're giving up? Can they make plays together? Do they read off each other well? Those are the things that you look for when you look at combinations and D pairings. Do they complement each other? Do they work in unison with each other? Do they communicate well? But a lot of it really comes down to are they winning their shifts? Are they productive, or is it a line or group that they go out there and it's just a lot of 50-50 shifts - like nothing really bad happens, nothing good happens, or they're under siege more than they're on the attack? Lots of times you may say, 'OK, maybe that's not the right fit for whatever reason.'"