One benefit under Knoblauch is he rolls his lines which Woody refused to do. Part of that is they have 4 competent lines and even some competent guys in the press box. The biggest difference being Knoblauch will do it when they're trailing where as Woody would just shorten his bench at the first sight of they team trailing. The better minute distribution and quality press box options like Stetcher, Brown, Ryan, and Broberg give this team a major advantage of not running out of gas.
Yep. KK is not a bench active coach in terms of pulling goalies, time outs, that sort of thing but in deployment and where to put guys and how to arrange minutes and best utilize players he's a lot more gold standard than Woody was.
I love pointing out how astute he's been. His decision to but Henrique top line was highly critiqued. There were hundred posts here "why would you break up the best line in the NHL, what an Iddyiot"
It was a masterclass move because it makes the topline even harder to strip pucks from. Nuge is great on PP but Henrique is a slightly better EV player and less prone to get conservative. If theres a play there to go for blood he'll make it.
The move to insert the pace of Holloway and Janmark is masterclass. Its not something Woody would have done.
The paring of Kane and Perry at times, the usage of guys like McLeod with these guys to give them pace, these are best usages of players.
Of course when you rotate lines like this and distribute minutes everybody is involved, your shifts are more energetic, and the team more playing not only closer to 60minutes but could be better staying power as well going on as playoffs progress.
