Some good assessments, but I have to disagree on Makar. I actually thought he was pretty good last night. I felt like he was getting pucks out of the zone with good quick passes.
I don’t think it’s time to send him down. He’s flashed at times, struggled at others. He is even and has 6/7 points, I know he’s had some blunders in his own zone, but the situation is not that dire.
And if Makar was to be sent down I think we would see just how immobile our defensive core is. They already look pretty slow at times. Makar is very important to this team.
I think if we replaced him with Barberio we wouldn't lose that much mobility, but we'd gain a lot more reliability in our own zone. I agree he's been pretty good with the puck on his stick, but I'm legitimately concerned with his defensive play. I don't even think sending him down is all that drastic - he's a young player. We send Timmins down too. Was that drastic?
As for the points, well in this game he got an assist because Kadri made an amazing play and singlehandedly created a goal. I haven't seem many points from Makar this season where he was the primary person responsible for the goal.
Honestly, I don't like the idea of sending him down, but I worry that if he keeps making these bad defensive plays it's going to hurt his confidence for the whole season. I already mentioned I think he's being tentative offensively - I suspect it's because he's so worried about making mistakes defensively he doesn't want to take any chances. If you play tentative in the NHL you don't belong there.
Frankly, he is not the same player right now that we saw last year in the playoffs. The reason I want to send him down is so he can go find that player, then come back when he's ready. The team is rolling and everyone is playing well - we don't need him right now. We might need playoff Makar down the stretch when the rest of the team isn't playing so well.
