I like BC. He hits, and shows decent enough offensive awareness to present to BMac the coveted Great Dumpster Dive Award.
As a fourth liner he's great - I think Winnik is a good 4th liner too. Winnik-Beagle-Connolly would be a great permanent fourth line, in terms of contributing some offense while being defensively solid. Sanford is playing with more confidence too - gutted for him he was blanked on that shot.
That said, our third line is still very underwhelming. Connolly, Winnik, Wilson and Sanford are all fine on the fourth line, but none of them have yet consistently stepped up to greater third line offensive duties.
Eller is playing a relatively strong defensive game, but he was meant to carry that third line offensively. He really hasn't/didn't. And he's way too expensive for fourth line duties. He has three points in 19 games, has averaged 26 points in his last three seasons, and doesn't appear to ever have played a full season. And has become our new Tom Wilson in penalty taking. What do we do with him?
Also, Orpik's been great. I wonder if Orpik's nagging injuries (and then throwing him back in the deep end) contributed to his declined performance last season and during the playoffs... hopefully reduced minutes and slightly easier assignments will help keep him healthy apart from anything. We also know that Schmidt can play top-4 minutes when needed to, so hopefully if Carlson were to go down at some point they'd keep the Orpik-Schmidt pairing together and pair Orlov with Chorney (a pair that played well last year, and which avoids the possibility of the Orpik-Orlov pairing...).