And, honestly, even with Kessel dealing with whatever and Hagelin having whatever the wingers aren’t trash and Kessel does seem to able to temporarily hit his higher gear. The D are all healthy enough to play and Murray has gotten a few days to sort himself out.
Playoff beast - crosby - beloved crazy man
A winger a season removed from almost a ppg - Brassard - clutch guy
Idk - Sheahan coming off a great series - beat up Kessel
Ignore-this-line
Maybe ZAR gets up to L3 and finds his form. Hopefully Sheary gets close to his ceiling with brassard and Rust. Losing Malkin is bad but it doesn’t make them suddenly awful. They have a 1C, 2C, 3C and AHL pet.
The Thrill might not be scoring, but he's still got that severely underrated playmaking ability that is HUGE while being on the 3rd line. I still separate the three we have left for impact guys on each line like Crosby, Brassard, and Kessel to maximize our depth against a Capitals team that isn't that deep anyway.
It's why I like that Sullivan is likely keeping Sheahan with Kessel and Brassard with Rust and Sid with Jake.
Stick with the "pairs" that work and Sullivan likes that whole "pairs" thing.
The 4th line is what worries me most, Kuhnhackl I have been happy with in the Flyers series, I hate him less at the moment than I did during the season. But Rowney, meh game or not, you know the worst is yet to come with him, it's a matter of time. A ticking time bomb of suck. Simon has been meh for the most part, but this is where I wish JR/Sullivan utilized their depth a little more.
DiPauli should have had some time up, we could have seen where he could have slot in on the 4th line.
Call up Jooris - Having Kuhn and Jooris flanking that piece of trash Rowney makes me sleep better at night.
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