HecticGlow
Registered User
This is Barry Trotz. What kind of production do you expect?
Scored 7 times, scored against once. Trotz doesn't want to score 10 goals in 2 games. This is not his MO. He's OK with 3-2 and 2-1. We are doing better so far, and we are seeing signs of better things offensively.
1st line is OK.
2nd line is due.
3rd line is out of sorts but Mojo is on fire.
4th line is out there not for scoring.
Holtby and the defense - the backbone made by GMBM/Trotz/Korn - are buying forwards more time. Those are experienced and/or skilled forwards. That's a plan.
No cohesiveness is a part of a system due to Trotz not being offensive master I guess. He knows how to get the puck to Ovi. Next step is not his best expertise.
But clearly Trotz does care bout lines producing, or he wouldn't have shaken them up several times in the last month or so to 'get them going'. Only one of the six goals scored so far has been the result of the normal ES lines - and that was Chimera's. I doubt 'score on the power play, and then at random fortunate moments' is the strategy here. Trotz doesn't want them to take risks and jeopardise a lead for the sake of scoring, but that's different to not wanting lines out there who can reliably score.
What I don't get is why when 8-19-77 was coasting people were calling for it to be torn apart, and yet a lengthy drought for 65-92-14 leads to assumptions they'll click back into place soon. We need the second line to cash in on those 'due' goals every game, not once in the sometime future.
I'm starting to wonder if third line/Mojo problem is actually Chimera. A lot of why 25-90-43 worked offensively was because of Chimera and Mojo as a pairing, coupled with Wilson's physicality buying them space. But over the last two months all the different combinations (Wilson, Richards, Beagle) have kept Chimera as the constant. I'd be intrigued to see some form of a 90-83-43 line at some point... Maybe it is Chimera who's cooled down a bit. His style certainly wouldn't be out of keeping with Winnick and Richards, and Winnick can play RW.