I don't like moving MacArthur. As a one game experiment, it's nothing to freak out about, but he's been really hot lately, so it seems counter productive when Hoffman could be tried out on the Spezza line first.
Michalek on the third line might turn out to be a really good thing. He has an all right amount of points, but his job is suppose to be to score goals, of which he only has done four times this season. Michalek will likely be matched up against less skilled opponents. Scoring 12+ goals a year on the third line takes on a completely different context than 12+ goals a year while playing on the first line.
I see no reason why Lehner won't be in net. Anderson needs to be the back up right now. I agreed with not forcing him out of the starting position, but it's no longer a case of Lehner just winning the job, as much as it also is Anderson losing the job.
I'm not saying Anderson won't come back in the future and elevate his level of play to that of a legitimate starter. But right now Ottawa is in must win territory, and without the first round pick, there's no benefit in writing off the season.
On the topic of hand feeding Anderson easy starts. It's a high risk, high reward proposition. My assumption would be that at this point, it's not Maclean's choice, but rather the choice of management.
The risk of starting Anderson is that Ottawa has less of a chance of winning games, which at this point are very important because if Ottawa is to make the playoffs they will do so by just squeaking in the wild card.
The reward of starting Anderson is that he finds his game again, is seen as a legitimate starting goalie, and Ottawa can both have leverage with Lehner in the off season, and have the option of getting an actual return for Anderson. There's also the extremely unlikely benefit that if Anderson does by some Disney magic find a way to reach his level of play from last season, Ottawa arguably would have the best performing goalie in the league.
I'm not defending the choice of starting him against weak opponents, I am just outlining some of the justifications for doing so.
