Match ups are very important against the Penguins. AV can't get out coached badly in this area. As good as the Pens "energy" players have been recently, I still think defending those top two lines is what will either win us or lose us this series.
We need to match up Klein-Yandle against that Hagelin-Bonino-Kessel line. The rest of our defenseman don't have the speed to play against them. Those wingers would absolutely roast all our other defenseman with their skating besides Skjei, and you obviously aren't putting him on anything other than the third pair.
I like Girardi-Staal against the Kunitz-Crosby-Hornqvist line. Neither has had a particularly good season, but they've had success against Crosby in the playoffs before, Staal really gets under Crosby's skin, and playing against players like Kunitz and Hornqvist is the wheelhouse for Girardi and Staal. If Girardi's still injured, just swap in McIlrath.
Boyle and Skjei should play against the Pens "energy guys", and they have to do well. They can't be outplayed the whole series. They can't expect to not have a hard battle just because they've not heard of those guys. Physicality in the playoffs against Boyle really worries me. He struggled a lot with it last year. It's why we went 7 games against Washington. I also am worried about a rookie defenseman with like 5 or 6 NHL games going into the lineup during the playoffs.
If we had McDonagh, I'd feel a lot better about our chances to shut these lines down.
