Leaving out KK, I can understand, kid seems to need a rest and reset, but Caufield on a 4th line instead of Armia should be the smart move. And put friggin Rama in the lineup. Like BDLurch, said, playing not to lose.
Will we ever see the end of the habs obsessive conservatism?
8 days is more than enough to reset. KK was one our best forwards last playoffs and was our most physical player. He definitely needs to be in the lineup. Even more so considering the alternative is playing Staal who doesnt look like he belongs in the nhl anymore.
There is no good argument to have staal over KK, but there are solid arguments for having armia/lehkonen/byron start game 1 over Caufield.
Those guys are all solid defensively and bring a good all-around game, which should be helpful against a high offensive leafs team. The Lehky - Evans - Byron line have been good the last 2 games, so they might decide to keep it. Byron and Lehkonen were great against the pens last playoffs, and Armia was great against the flyers. So they are guys who step up their game when it matters.
Caufield could bring more than any of these 3 in these playoffs, but he is still a bit of an unknown (only 10 nhl games played). I would have him on my lineup, but I can see why Ducharme could decide not to use him for the first game of the playoffs. If the habs struggle to score goals in the 1st game or first 2 games, then he should definitely be inserted in the lineup moving forward.
lmao
