Sutter himself said he needed reliable experience on the back end, and it turns out that was a key difference in the win. Does Valimaki have more upside than Stone? Obviously. My bottle of orange juice has more upside than Stone... but neither my OJ or Valiamki have anywhere near as much NHL experience as Stone does.
Sutter came here to win games. If we need to eliminate defensive mistakes in order to win, and the key to doing that is to dress Stone over Valimaki, then so be it.
The season isn't over. This isn't like most years. Every game we play is worth 4 points, so we just need a good winning streak and then we're right back in the picture. We're not going to draft in the top five even if we suck, and apparently this is a lousy draft anyway -- so drafting in the top five is going to be a crapshoot even if we did get there.
Make the playoffs and let's see what Sutter can do with these guys. Worst case: we lose in the first round and Sutter learns first-hand who needs to go and who he can work with.
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