This game looked like the playoffs last year all over again...
It's still just game 1 but I think Mony and Johnny need to be split.
I'd love to see them try something like this next game:
Thachuk - Lindholm - Dube
Mangiapane - Mony - Leivo / Simon
Gaudreau - Backlund - Bennett
Lucic - Ryan - Nordstrom/Leivo/Simon
I know splitting up Backs and Mang isn't necessarily the best idea but Johnny and Mony look broken and they need to get fixed.
Backlund makes everyone he plays with better and he and Bennett have decent chemistry, and can clear up a lot of space for Johnny and play with pace and Bennett getting to the net and Backlund's responsible High C play could be ideal.
It also gives us a chance to see if Mang is ready to start driving play on a line of his own. That "second" line is the one that gives me the most hesitation about this but I could really giving us 3 equally threatening lines.
The fourth line becomes a bit of a quagmire but oh well.
|