I think it's Robinson time. I'm not sure how much ice time we're going to get out of the 4th line outside of the PK, so someone like Czarnik won't be used effectively. Same deal if we want Quine there--these are offensively driven guys, do we want them out there for three minutes to potentially force a play, or do we want a guy who knows his role, i.e. Robinson/Gawdin and are defensively responsible in 5 minutes of ice time. But Rinaldo screwed the pooch on the Jets only goal so I doubt he starts next game.
As for the rest of the lineup, Hanifin played the least amount of ice time on the back end which isn't super surprising and it was still at around 17 minutes. I like Gustafsson and Forbort is unoffensive in anything he does but he can move the puck well and defends well. Gus was good on the top unit and actually has a somewhat dangerous shot and he gets it through traffic. Andersson plays as I'd expect in playoffs, a bit safer but makes the smart plays. Giordano and Brodie were against Wheeler and Connor for ~65% of the game and it showed, they shut them down well. Feel like we had good structure for todays game and were willing to take a penalty to protect Talbot.
On the forward side, despite scoring this game, Gaudreau and that line wasn't overly noticeable. Actually, early on Gaudreau was really trying and was impactful but the rest of his linemates weren't astounding to me. Lindholm played physical but I can't remember if he actually played the puck at all, while Monahan was ok, carried the puck a bit, and made the smart play to Gaudreau on the first goal. I think there's a lack of rhythm between them and the D, as early in the game there were some passes back that resulted in turnovers because they missed/Andersson was pulling back when they expected him to stay still. But I like that Gaudreau scored, I feel that confidence is going to carry forward well and you could tell there was an extra tempo with the top line after it.
Second line, idk what to say other than that they played a perfect game. Backlund and Mangiapane scored, forechecked well, same with Tkachuk. Cycled, defended well, broke the puck out, just did everything right. Third line; Lucic got a breakaway and made a good play in the corner with Dube on the Backlund goal, Dube is unsurprisingly energetic and played well, and Bennett was impactful in a positive way.
Rieder and Ryan played solely on the PK for most of the game and they controlled it. Rinaldo... I already talked about. But our PK was uber-aggressive which calls back to last season and I like that. We were willing to carry the puck when we had a lane, we were smart with moving the puck around when the Jets wouldn't pressure, really good. I forget the powerplay though, but they scored twice so nice.
