LOL you have to be f***ing kidding! Literally 1 person has put up 30 or 40 goals playing with Point and Kucherov...Stamkos. Literally zero other people have. No one. What the f*** are you expecting? Seriously you make Hose look rational.
Pretty much at this point, if you don't put up 40 goals playing with Point and Kuch, consider yourself a bum and a scrub.
Looks up history of Kuch's linemates:
HOLD UP. LET HIM COOK.
Just before last season’s playoffs Point was with Paul and Colton on the 2nd line and Cirelli with Killorn and Hagel on the 3rd:Honestly would be insanely stupid to split up Kucherov and Point, you make both of them weaker and I just don't see him doing that. The biggest reason Stamkos and Kucherov were together is because they played nearly the entire season together last year, we went back to Point-Kucherov this season with Stamkos splitting time on wing.
Contrary to some belief, we did not randomly change our lines midway through the series as discovered a "shutdown pairing in Cirelli and Point" the entire team did a 180 and found their playoff game, with Vasilevski being the biggest difference in the latter half of the series. Stamkos and Kucherov, Point and Cirelli were the pairings from game 1 as they were for the majority of the season last year. Cooper makes some odd decisions but he's not going to start random lines on day 1 of the playoffs after a full 82 games.
GDT: - 5/2/22 - 7:30PM EDT - #3 Tampa Bay @ #2 Toronto [ECQF GAME 1]
When do we get the official lineups? Unless Point is still has a lingering injury I'd like to see 7-11 again. Everyone’s ready to go per cooper on Twitterforums.hfboards.com
GDT: - 5/4/22 - 7:30PM EDT - #3 Tampa Bay @ #2 Toronto [ECQF GAME 2]
forums.hfboards.com
We'll likely see an iteration of:
Hagel-Point-Kucherov
Killorn-Cirelli-Stamkos
or
Stamkos-Point-Kucherov
Hagel-Cirelli-Killorn
as those have been the most common use pairings this season, maybe he'll figure out Cirelli is best used as a 3C but that's asking a bit much.
Teams generally don't trade core pieces they just signed to an 8 year extension. Tampa certainly wouldn't be moving him for picks and/or prospects in a win now position, so unless they found a team willing to trade probably 2 players equal to or less than his cap hit and that were at least as talented at their positions, it's not happening. Many teams that might have these kind of pieces also have their own cap issues, so they wouldn't be able to take on Cirelli's 6.25 without sending comparable cap back. Even if they could find a great dman+lower tier F as the basis of a trade, odds are they'd then have to factor in an extension on one, if not both of them much sooner than later, which may or may not be possible given the cap situation. Maybe if some team wants to offer up two quality players+, then JBB at least listens, but otherwise it's likely a quick no thanks.
Thinking Cirelli would be traded is dumb. That contract was given out as part of the new core. Point as 1C, Cirelli as 2C. The production rate is low for Cirelli there but is offset by his defense/pk. The issue is that our team has lost a lot of speed the last two years. Whoever can replace Killorn will likely not be as productive offensively, nor would we have any cap space/capital to trade and put someone equal in his place. So yeah, Colton being the guy makes sense. I'm just not sure how well rolling the Cirelli/Stamkos tandem with whoever as LW will work when we are wasting one of the best shots in the game with a shutdown center. It should be a playmaker on the wing or a center. Unfortunately our asses are so strapped and unable to accommodate but we have redundant pieces nearly everywhere in the bottom 9 makeup of the forward group.
With good line management, they could still roll out these lines next year:
It's probably his last shot if he honestly gets another, which I don't think he will. I don't watch the crunch to know other than what I've seen him do with us, but I'm doubtful he gets another crack. It's not a bad lineup if Jeannot could move his feet. If not, swap Colton and try Fortier there.
