Pitkanen on the ice today, Ruutu once again practicing in contact jersey.
Honest question after reading the Sanguinetti thread. If Pitkanen is truly back this weekend, who sits?
Personally, I'd alternate Sangs and Corvo unless one of them really blows up.
With that said, it probably won't happen. The scratch might be Sanguinetti but you need to carry 7 anyways especially with this group that tends to have persistent small injuries.
Man, I really can't see Corvo coming out with the minutes he's getting and the way he has responded to his early season slump. He has been eating up the minutes that McBain has been dropping. Right now I truly believe it's a dog fight between McBain and Sanguinetti for the role of moderately soft bottom pairing puck mover.
Wonder if we could do what we were doing with Joslin sometime. Bump McBain up like the 4th line winger + PP usage. Bonus that he can drop back to D during the game if anyone goes down.
I'm no lover of McBain, but my unprofessional opinion is that, if he's in the lineup with Pitkanen out, he's a better option on the point than either Brent or Faulk. I realize that Faulk might be the better choice if it's a PP with a 2-goal lead, but when you need to score a goal, I think McBain is the guy you want in that position.
And while his power-play production has dipped significantly since 2010, the fact is that Ovechkin has one power play point in his last 18 games against Muller teams.
The stats in this article are kind of stunning: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck-daddy/man-solved-alex-ovechkin-161323779--nhl.html
6 games played against Carolina with Muller as head coach. 0 goals, 2 assists, -4, 0 PPG, 0 PPA and only 1.66 shots per game. Then this:
That's wild.