To get back on track, I thought Monahan had some good jump in the early parts of last game, but Lindholm had to leave for a bit and the other lines were reconfigured in that time and when Lindholm came back, Peters put them back together and it still looked blah.
Here's the thing, there's definitely sound logic in putting your top players out on in the last few minutes when you're down, but one of the luxuries of being a top team is you can make a potentially bold move to send a message. Like keeping your top-3 players on the bench when the game is on the line. Show them you're willing to go without them. Show how it feels to sit and watch those last few instead of being out there. Make them basically beg to be back in that position with their play.
This is a very amateur example, but when coaching youngins a while ago, we had the top team headed into the playoffs. We had a rule that 5 minutes before you are fully dressed and ready. No putting on pads and jerseys while we are talking pre-game. This was slipping as we headed to the end of the season, as were other small detailed issues. In the final game most of team was dragging getting ready, so we decided to put out foot down. We played a full period with 8 players. Parents were screaming at us. The players who were playing were begging for a rest. Nope. Sorry. Your teammates weren't ready to go, take it up with them. We also had to take responsibility for not cracking down on it sooner.
We lost that game, but it didn't matter. The boys made sure each other were ready after that. City Champions a few weeks later.
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