I guess at what point do you start looking at addressing underperforming players. Historically it seems to be 20 games.
Overall I think the defence has done it’s job. Goaltending of late has improved enough as a tandem to give the team a chance each game. The big problem now seems to be consistent scoring. Both primary and secondary.
Players that would stand out to me would be Kadri, Dube, Magiapane. Kadri started out hot and has disappeared. Dube has not taken a step from last season. Mangiapane is probably in the same boat. Coleman might also fall in this category.
Rooney and Lucic provide no offence whatsoever.
Huberdeau seems to be coming around. I think Lindholm, Toffoli, Lewis, Ritchie, Backlund and Ruzicka are providing about what they were expected to provide.
So if you play Vladar more to help with the goaltending until Markstrom can get his head straight it looks like decisions would center around Kadri, Mangiapane, Dube, Coleman, Lucic and Rooney.
It seems like the decision had been made on Rooney. He has dissappeared. Highly doubt anything happens with Kadri. But Magiapane, Dube, Lucic and Coleman would be the players I would experiment with replacing in the lineup with players from the AHL.
Lucic offers less and less value as the league seems to be moving further and further away from fighting. I would look at replacing him first with a skilled player and start bumping others further down in the lineup.
Coleman seems to fill more of a defensive role so Mangiapane and Dube would probably be the next two I would rotate out of the lineup.
I don’t see what it would hurt to give Phillips, Zary or Peletier a shot. Ruzicka has turned out well. I’m not sure they could be worse than Lucic, Dube, Mangiapane or Coleman in terms of generating offence. If they are then the experiment can end.
But I think at this point doing nothing and crossing your fingers isn’t going to work. The lineup needs more skill. I don’t think it’s coming from the current group. So if AHL experimenting doesn’t pan out then I guess trades might be required. Or give up and wait until the offseason. I doubt that will happen either based on the money they have invested.
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