Thoughts for Sunday
Wondering what others think about these thoughts I have been having:
I think we still stick with Raanta, last night was NOT on him even the end, it just felt like the whole team kinda gave up after the go-ahead.
Defensively I am not really concerned. Skjei and Pesce have been pretty beat up this series, Skjei in particular likely played the majority of yesterday with a broken nose. I think they were the weakest of the three pairings and if they're the weakest then we're not in trouble. They'll be fine.
Offensively... surprise, this is a problem. I said yesterday that I thought our secret weapon would be finding scoring through defensemen but the forwards still have to do *something* to generate those chances. The Staal line is the only one that has stayed consistent and the results speak for themselves. The crux of this post is I didn't like the other three lines. Here are my feelings on the combos I would choose and reasoning:
Top line is obviously the hardest one since we're without the first *three* guys we'd prefer to pair with Aho. But we have to find a way to make this line at least *potentially* scary. So I would move Necas back up to this line in place of Noesen. We can go on and on about the lack of production on the ice, but the fact is Aho and Necas are still the two guys that are going to have to put this team on their backs if we have a chance at a run, and I think putting them together is the most likely combination to suddenly start clicking.
For the other wing, hear me out, Pool. Look, he has to go somewhere. We can park him on the fourth line but putting a guy who is already not producing on your bottom line just makes the whole line a liability IMO. Putting him up top pairs him with Aho, they have history together and that has to count for something eventually. Plus it puts a big physical presence on our scoring line and forces the Islanders to adjust how they approach that. Pool hasn't produced on the score sheet, but we need a big body up there that can throw against anyone trying to bully Aho and Necas and what better choice than Aho's friend? Aho can usually take care of himself, but Necas is clearly playing through injury and needs someone on his line to draw physicality.
Second line should be Jarvis and Drury with KK. Drury is on the cusp of production, I can feel it, so keeping him top 6 makes sense to me. Jarvis and KK have great chemistry. Again we can argue all day about how they have underproduced when paired, but they have underproduced everywhere. Every combo has underproduced save for the Staal line these last two games. So again, put a couple guys together who enjoy each other's company and good things are bound to happen eventually.
That leaves Step-Stas-Noes as the bottom. I actually think these guys all have a similar mindset and should play well together. Yeah they're all depth guys, yeah you can still argue this line is a clear weakness in match-up. But Noesen has been scoring more than Pool so putting him here instantly elevates the scoring potential. Stas and Step, I have no complaints about their work ethic. They skate hard, they want to be here. Give them a slight improvement in scoring potential with Noesen and let's see what they can do with that.
Obviously nothing here is actually going to matter, it's not like coaches come on Reddit for line suggestions. This is just how I deal with frustrating loses, examining what I personally might do differently if I did have a say. What are your suggestions for changes after last night? Consider it a chance decompress after a rough loss to a dirty team.