Not surprised with the results of that game last night. I was predicting a 5-3 loss. The Oilers are riding a new coach and McDavid is pretty awesome but I still think that was a winnable game when all is said and done. (Especially when they went down to 4 D-men for a long stretch there)
I just don't get how Bednar keeps practically the same lineup game after game without really trying anything else. I mean the Top line is going to be an offensive force on most nights but there are going to be some nights where they just can't do it all on their own or they just plain have a bad night.
With Bednar it seems like he's content with having that one dominant top line and making sure everything else is as balanced as possible the rest of the lineup. I don't get why Soderberg hasn't been used in the #2C spot with the best wingers you can get him? He always seems to have Nieto attached to him no matter what. It makes no sense to me. How many times have we seen him setup Nieto or Calvert with a glorious chance in front the net only to have them shoot it at the goalie's crest??
I'd go with this:
Landeskog-Mackinnon-Rantanen
Jost-Soderberg-Compher
Nieto-
Kerfoot-Calvert
Greer-Wilson-Bourque
**Kamenev (IR)
(swap out Jost & Kerfoot depending on who's going and who you're playing against)
Andrighetto - I'd like to see us move him out for some help in other areas (a faceoff guy with size would be nice). He's not good enough to be a Top-6 guy and gets lost in the shuffle in the bottom 6. I don't think he has much value but maybe there's a team out there going no where fast that's looking to move out a large contract and also needs players back as well as picks?? Someone mentioned Anisimov a little while ago...that kind of move could really help.
For the D, I think it's not completely unexpected that Ian Cole has started to struggle a bit. He played oustanding for the first quarter of the season but he's never been able to consistently hold that level of play. It will probably come back around again but I think it's time to bump-up Zadorov in the lineup. For me it would be like this :
Zadorov-Barrie (1A pairing - interchangeable with 1B - depends who's playing well)
Girard-EJ (1B pairing - interchangeable with 1A - depends who's playing well)
Cole-Nemeth
As far as the goaltending, they've been really good through 31 games...we have a GREAT record especially when you consider how many road games we've played. They've hit a bit of a snag of late but that's going to happen over the course of a season. They'll bounce back.