Stamkos and Paul are -15 and -16 respectively you want them on a line together why? Easily the worst duo defensively on the team.
That's like saying Sergachev and Raddysh need to stay a pairing.
Coop's incessant need to keep rolling Cirelli on the second line negates Paul's opportunity of climbing out of the ditch he's in by pulling third line duties. Tony needs to center the third line and BDN needs to be the second line LW. Period. That's it.
And if you get Stamkos off that Goddamn wall and play him at center (thus putting players on either his wings that are far better defensively), he'd go back to playing to his strengths.
I've seen enough of Stamkos on the wing, for like, 2 seasons now. Ace on the wing makes me comfortable. So does Paul. ABB doesn't make me comfortable anywhere but being in Syracuse but seeing how he's here to stay, 4th line RW with Glendenning and Motte works for me.
If Sheary can figure his shit out maybe he should slot in the 3rd line RW role and likely benefit having Tony as his center.
I liked what I saw from Chaffee last night. Extremely small sample size but given the garbage passing thru my eyeballs the last 2 months, I'll get geeked up seeing that kid repeatedly parking his ass right on top of the crease and looked pretty good doing it.
We used to have guys that did that. Not anymore. Likely because they're mishmashed on line combos that clearly haven't produced total on-ice results.
Time for a change