Seriously. Who fills in at center if Crosby and/or Malkin get injured, which isn't exactly a far fetched scenario? Joe Vitale? Brandon Sutter? Come on now.
I said
if anything. It's arguable, but here, these lines without Sutter.
X = Vitale, Adams, Sill, Zolnierczyk, other call up, but realistically a new player would be added after Sutter was gone.
X is not Glass.
X does not denote the same player being in the lineup twice, whoever was going to make that joke.
Kunitz - Crosby - Bennett
Jokinen - Malkin - Neal
Kobasew - Jeffrey - Dupuis
X/Glass - Adams - Vitale
X
Malkin gets injured, Jokinen moves to centre and Dupuis to wing.
Kunitz - Crosby - Bennett
Dupuis - Jokinen - Neal
Kobasew - Jeffrey - X
Crosby gets injured, Jokinen moves to 1st centre, Kunitz goes to Malkin and Dupuis goes to Jokinen. Or just Jeffrey for Crosby which may not be a huge loss from Sutter for Crosby, IDK.
Dupuis - Jokinen - Bennett
Kunitz - Malkin - Neal
Kobasew - Jeffrey - X
OR
Kunitz - Jeffrey - Bennett
Jokinen - Malkin - Neal
Kobasew - X - Dupuis
Both get injured, we're ****ed anyway.
Kunitz - Jeffrey/Jokinen - Bennett
Dupuis - Jeffrey/Jokinen - Neal
Kobasew - X - X
As crazy as it sounds, Sutter is playing like he wants it to end up that way. One or two good plays a game, but if he didn't have that last name and if he wasn't part of the return in the Staal trade, I really do wonder if we wouldn't be mentioning him right after Glass.
Sutter really didn't impress me in the playoffs and he's been like that ever since. He's just kind of flat and lacking, and physically weak. I'm not expecting Staal, but Sutter isn't doing enough.