I still think there's a massive chemistry problem up front. Our good players are fine, statistically they all are playing above water, but the sum of the parts is worse than the individuals in this case.
Lindholm-Toffoli, for example, IMO fit together like two left gloves. It doesn't really matter what you put on the wing, these two players don't fit style wise well together. And yet they've been together all year because the other parts also don't fit well together.
Lindholm is a shooting minded, two way centre. He needs someone who will carry the puck up ice, and another someone who will dig the puck out of the tricky areas and muck up behind the net. (Gaudreau-Tkachuk, or Gaudreau-Monahan formerly filling these roles respectively.) He can cover for guys with defensive shortcomings because he's usually hanging out pretty high to get back on D, and also because those are the good shooting lanes.
Toffoli is pretty much the same player just on the RW. Hangs out in the same areas. Typically gets back on D pretty quick.
The problem is that these two guys are mediocre enough at the other elements of the game that they can at least play together. So they're not tripping over each other (like Mangi-Kadri for example.) Speaking of which, Mangi-Kadri-Dube also are all essentially the same player. While Huby is in the same vein of player as Lindy-Toffoli, just with a pass first mentality instead of shoot. For diggers/muckers, we have Coleman and Lucic.
We are seriously lacking a player who can carry the puck up ice consistently. And we are lacking a really good muck-it up, board battle talent.
It's getting too late for new line combos, but it's pretty desperately needed imo.
This is who I would try, but I truly just think the mix is off. We need to shuffle our deck chairs.
Speedy/ tenacious - responsible two way - mucker/puck collector
Mangiapane-Lindy-Coleman
Huberdeau-Kadri-Ruzicka
Pelletier-Backlund-Dube
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