Here and there. Almost always on the RW before the team acquired Neal (or while he was out with injury). Even Disco was savvy enough to realize it was a skating dumpster fire and immediately tried something else.
A spastic, million-miles-per-hour straight line player with terrible hands and room temperature offensive IQ isn't exactly the greatest match for Malkin. He might help defensively... but he'll make the line even worse (somehow) offensively.
But again -- the tradeoff is worth it, I think. And Malkin is gonna be awful, regardless... so whatever.
You know that I'm not a fan of the pairing. That said, a north-south spaz like Dupuis could help for a couple of reasons:
1. It pushes the tempo for Malkin. He's slowing it down too much right now. If Dupuis changes that, then all the better.
2. I wonder if Malkin doesn't feel comfortable taking chances offensively when he doesn't feel comfortable that his linemates are there to cover for him. He took chances with Kunitz. It's one thing that always made it work with Kulemin and made it work with Talbot and Malone.
Look, I know that I'm reaching. The thing I'm looking for isn't some slick, clever plays. I'm looking for him to attack. If Dupuis helps him attack, then good. If not, then it was worth trying, because Jokinen-Malkin-Neal has been-- and always was going to be-- something that doesn't work right for Malkin, which curiously should be the main criteria determining who a coach puts on his line.
