Also, I’m going to start being critical of Darryl’s usage soon if the losses continue. It’s one thing to ice a roster full of deadweight, but it’s another thing to play that deadweight as much as he has. For instance, Matthew Tkachuk’s 17:57 of ice time vs Trevor Lewis’ 13:05?? WTF. I just posted how vital the top line has been to all 17 of this team’s victories, so why isn’t everyone in the top line averaging 20 minutes?
If the top line is miles and miles ahead of everyone else, the minutes they play should reflect that. We shouldn’t be gifting minutes to players who consistently cost the team goals and then ask the top line to save the day by outscoring their mistakes with relatively minimal minutes. If there isn’t a move on the horizon, then Darryl needs to play the top line more and the other guys less, because when they’re on the ice, the chances of scoring go up and the chances of being scored on go down. We don’t need the other 3 lines making the their jobs harder because we wanted to roll all 4 lines for the sake of rolling all 4 lines. These guys are professional athletes, if you consistently play like crap, then you shouldn’t expect to play.
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