It matters very much so. As a general rule, you should play your best players the most minutes, and then fill whatever minutes you have left with the BPA, with an allowance of 1 grinder per forward line. By putting Reilly and Zeitsev or Reilly and Gardiner together and bumping Hainsey down to the second line WHERE HE SHOULD BE, you are making a bigger net increase to the team than any decision Babcock has had to make on players on the cusp of making the team, or how the 3rd and 4th lines look. More minutes, bigger impact. It's not rocket science.
Im really at a loss as to what you are arguing here.
I agree that it doesnt take an accounting certificate in rocket surgery to arrange you're assets in the most positive and effectual manner.
Where I will absolutely disagree is when that type of statement is made taking into account a certain level of quality which we do not currently possess. Hence why I said it doesnt matter how you slice this. We have some really high end offensive talent on our blueline with Reilly and Gardiner. But both have serious flaws in other parts of their games, one being much worse than the other. Hainsey is close to done and Zaitzev has not proven anything to warrant his position either. We have some young guys that are definitely on their way but currently are not close to the minutes or consistency we need.
The key here is consistency btw. When you cant consistently count on your defenders to clear the net, clear the puck, make a proper first pass, control the puck on the boards, pinch at the right time and not let pucks get past them then you have a problem. It's the reason why we constantly have 1 bad period, 2 good periods. It's a reason why we constantly are in the bottom third of the league in not only shots against, but scoring chances against and high danger scoring chances against.
We definitely don't have the worst defense in the league overall. It's offensive capability is very high. But its bottom 10 for sure the other way, in some cases bottom 5.
