Bortuzzo was brutal last night yes, but so were a lot of dmen. Ernhoff was bad, Martin was meh, as was Despres. Letang had his moments but was unimpressive as well. Everyone flat out sucked last night. If they could have played in the 1st the way they did in the 3rd, it could have been different...course Lundqvist was absolutely phenomenal last night.
Bortuzzo makes a lot of sense to keep for a number of reasons. We sorely lack the big, bruising dman. He is essentially Orpik's replacement. Stick him on the 3rd pairing if you must, but I believe he will be a contract controllable asset to the defense moving forward.
Letang-Maatta
Despres-Pouliot
Bortuzzo-Harrington
Or whatever pairings you want, is a solid defense. That also leaves a couple of them out as trade bait, namely Martin, Ernhoff, Dumoulin, and Sammy.
Beyond that, I hated the fact that Duper was put back with Sid...but I understood the move. I just hope its VERY short term. Was also criminal that Bennett only got 4th line minutes with a look here and there on the 3rd line. He is too badly needed in the Top 6 at this moment. Maybe be a trade that changes, but moving forward, he needs to be put there. All in all, he played a decent game to boot. It was refreshing to see that kind of jump and skill on the 4th line. Assuming there is a trade, a bottom 6 of:
Duper-Sutter-Downie
Comeau-Goc-Spaling
Could be really good moving forward. We just need the other missing pieces. Wonder how a Bennett-Malkin-Hornqvist line would look...?