I like McGinn with Stastny and someone like Malone with Duchene. McGinn isn't the best defensively, even though he hustles at times and finishes his checks. A responsible center compensates for that. Also, McGinn is about about shooting and Stastny is a good playmaker.
Meanwhile, Duchene and Parenteau must be allowed to take chances offensively. That means the third winger have to be defensively responsible.
Malone is probably to limited for him to be an option with Duchene long term, but the thinking seems sounds to me.
You know Malone was almost a PPG in his final season of College right? His last season (First as a pro) in the AHL he had 36 points in 67 games. I'm not sure why people completely write him off when it comes to having at least some scoring ability.
He's also had four points in all of 18 total NHL games while playing a very limited fourth line role.
I like seeing him getting a chance like that, hopefully he gets a full game there Monday. He seems more aware offensively and better defensively than Mitchell did last night.
There were two or three times where Mitchell revived the puck only to fall into a black whole with it. Either by dumping it off somewhere or losing it along the boards.
Malone looked just a bit more creative in how he was able to move the puck along and off the boards. The puck wasn't on the other teams stick shortly after he touched it.
I don't think Mitchell is bad but hes definitely not smart enough to go out against the other teams first or second lines. It's kind of the same thing with McLeod, while he does not really make plays, he understands how to keep it simple without constantly being the last one on his line to touch the puck before it goes the other way.
Mitchell looked like he was over thinking and taking an extra second to decide what to do with the puck. He was outclassed against tougher competition. Malone is used to playing against and shutting down offensive players throughout his career.
You never know, but Malone definitely didn't look like a black hole in the offensive zone in the few shifts he got with those two. Kept it simple and worked the boards digging pucks out like hes suppose to. I could see Malone having more of an ability to put up points than people are giving him credit for, IMO anyways.
