Stralman absolutely should be taking Richards spot on the point on the PP. At this point they don't need a big shot there (though Stralman is capable of ripping them), they need a steadying force there. Taking Richie off and Putting on Stralman does 2 things, 1 it puts a reliable defensive guy there to prevent the bone headed blue line turnovers this team is accustomed to, and 2 it takes away the reliance on Richie to take every god forsaken shot on the PP. They should be creating from down low anyways, where most of their goals have come during the playoffs.
I don't know when last I saw him do this. Has to be like the shortened season or something. I agree with the rest. Stralman is capable of making standard powerplay plays (pass to McD, dump in along the boards) and is not nearly as prone to making mistakes as Richards.
-----Kreider-----
----Stepan------St.Louis
----McD------Stralman
the idea here should be pretty obvious. Try to get a RH shot through from Stralman and have Kreider screening and going for the rebound/deflection. Stepan for the RH shot up front (now, if he'd only use it). McDonagh and MSL are pretty obvious choices. Gives you creativity plus 2 dangerous shooters.
-----Nash-----
--Brassard---Pouliot-----
-JMoore-----MZA----
JMoore ripping them, perhaps the creativity of Brassard and MZA along with the size of Nash are good enough to buy Pouliot some time to shoot it (I think he's one of our better forwards at that). A thing about Nash that goes overlooked is, he's real good in front of the net. If MZA gets some time as QB perhaps he could do some magic. Also has some hustle on the backcheck if someone ****s up. Replace him with Girardi for situations late in the game if you feel like it.
One way or another, I think we'll see Vigneault changing up the PP a bit here. It's clearly not working the way we're going and he's intelligent enough to realize that.
This is either gonna be a grinded out NY win our a LA blowout win imo.