I understand Boyle and he’s been working, even though sometimes I wish he was on unit 2 instead of unit 1. The current lineups need to be blown to smithereens though.[/QUOTE]
OMG seeing Zajac out there. And not just in those situations.
When we came rocketing out of the gate this year, it was with a wide open style of play. Granted the league was going to settle down as the season progressed. But still, a guy like Brat and also Gibbons and other youngsters, is at their most creative when you open up the play. So that is the style that suits us. It makes us competitive with top clubs.
So what does Hynes and the powers that be do? Having achieved a first place start, they field a club with Zajac, Boyle, Stafford, Hayes, Johanson, Lovejoy . . . etc. on the ice and try to play a shut down style. Keep doing it and we'll be competing with the Hurricanes for the eight spot in a month.
We need to open up the ice to succeed and to let our kids' skill register.[/QUOTE]
Most of those guys were in the lineup to start the season though.
I wouldn’t lump Johansson in with that cast of guys.
Zajac has always gotten unfairly blasted around here, but 9 games and 0 points with over 17 minutes of ice time per game and lots of power play time, he deserves it at the moment. Or maybe he’s still injured. Even those fancy possession stats aren’t there for him this year, which is very rare. I was really annoyed when I saw him with Hall in the 3rd period last night. That better not be the next option to start with on Tuesday. Zajac has been very disappointing, but the coaches are to blame for his usage right now. Not sure what they’re line of thinking is here.
That said, we should be alright with a couple older/slower guys on the roster.