i look at it as King and Nolan locked in their spots, but still must continue to show improvement and produce.
suddenly juggling them around, or changing them to me at least doesn't make sense. suddenly dropping Gagne in the lineup because he's healthy at the expense of these guys just doesn't sit well. with me and it also causes issue in a locker room. especially when Gagne was out for so long, the dynamic of the team completely changed. these guys came in, did what they were asked to do and the team won.
they also displaced Richie out of the lineup. shouldn't that also mean he gets back in at the expense of Kong or Nolan?
if its my call Gagne is on the #4 and has to earn his time back into the lineup, just like any other player. you can't essentially throw him a 'veterans waiver' and screw over guys that earned their ice time.
King, Nolan, Clifford are the long-term future and imo you work to improve their skills. this only comes from ice time and being put in the lineup where they need to be. dropping them down, or scratching them to make room for a guys isn't the way to go. Gagne is gone after this season anyways. you get what you can from him, but you invest in the future.
i agree with Ron completely and the lines should look like this almost every night
Brown/Kopitar/Williams
Penner/Richards/Carter
King/Stoll/Lewis
Clifford (Gagne)/Fraser/Nolan
-Richie is the scratch
-maybe bounce Gagne to the #2 for Penner if he starts to play poorly. even better you give Kong the chance to play the #2 to see if he can produce. guys play hard, guys produce they deserve the chance to be bumped up.
-Clifford needs ice time and can't be continued to be scratched constantly
He looked great yesterday. Tough call.
