It's totally JAW DROPPING how Wheeler replaced Goodrow on my shit list. Never thought that would factor into place.
He shouldn't, Goodrow is abhorrent all the time.
I won't say Wheeler has been good, but only his last 3-4 games have been REALLY bad.
But this also comes down to usage. One of them has played on the 3rd-4th line all year and Wheeler is in the top 6. We haven't been helped on the injury front at all so some things you can't get around (using Goodrow or Bonino in a top 9 role) but they can (and at times have) used other players in place of Wheeler at 1RW. Remember when they were pressing Vancouver and on the verge of tying it a few nights ago before giving up the 4th goal? All the momentum went away the second Wheeler was inserted back onto that line. Maybe coincidental, but maybe not.
What irks me isn't that it's taken this long to try something different (it would have been nice to give Othmann a bit of a look there but what ever, they weren't serious about keeping him up) since the reality is that a change hasn't really been needed until probably last week (and I still maintain that Kreider-Zib is a bigger issue than who ever the RW is on that line) but that Lavi went back to it after he found other shit that worked better. Double shifting Laf and/or Panarin for the entire season isn't an answer, but it could have been one for that night (especially when they had 2 full days off ahead of them.)
If the only thing Laviolette does as Ranger coach help Laf gain star status it was probably a worthwhile hire, but hes starting to worry me with some of the other shit. Looks a lot like what the kind of dumb shit the 3 guys who proceeded him would do.
