I'm going to say this again - Bruce had Kolesar out there in the final minute with the goalie pulled.
It's explainable. First, no Stone or Eichel. That leaves Karlsson, Marchessault, Stephenson, Amadio and Barbashev as the obvious top forwards, and Theodore as the most offensively gifted D-man. In the late PP Cassidy used the first 4 of those forwards, and then brought on Roy half way through as the 6th man. With the clock counting down it got to the point, with about 40 secs left, that Karlsson and Marchessault had both pulled really long 3 minute shifts, starting before their PP and out the other side, although there was a TV timeout in there. Nonetheless Bruce probably wanted fresh bodies out there in the last gasp to try and make something happen. The swaps were Karlsson and Roy for Barbashev and Kolesar, and Pietrangelo for Theo, while JM stayed on. Not ideal perhaps, but the only other realistic fresh option was Cotter, who'd not be any better an alternative than KK.
So that was Bruce's choice - stick with better but tired bodies, or try some fresh legs. As it turned out Kolesar did get wide open but blew the shot. Maybe Karlsson or Roy would have scored it, or maybe they would never have gotten into that position in the first place. Either way, in context Kolesar was a rational choice to send out.
