Hivemind
We're Touched
Six games. Wow. With Erat being dicked around all season more than any player this side of Orlov, too. Erat's style fits 19-8 pretty well from what I see and he's a winger, while MoJo is a center. Just play them that way for six weeks and see what we get.
Six games. Not a single goal while the line was on the ice together. So what if Erat was getting dicked around, he didn't do anything to help the first line. In fact, it lit the lamp less. Find me a six game stretch in which the Johansson-Backstrom-Ovechkin line combined for no goals together. That top line needs to produce, and it didn't do it with Erat.
It's one thing to say that maybe we should try Erat there again. It's completely another to claim he's the guaranteed answer, and then shove your fingers in your ears to all the previous data to the contrary of your opinion doesn't exist. But that wouldn't be convenient to using Johansson as a scape goat.