For much of last season, the Philadelphia Flyers were a team without a real third line. For significant stretches of last season, the Flyers ran a de facto third line of Chris VandeVelde, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, and Ryan White. That trio was really a 4th line by most measures, but they got the ice time and matchups of a 3rd line.
This did the Flyers no favors. Even when this 4th line was playing a little better and scoring a few down the stretch, they never really moved out of 4th line territory.