Sorry but i used to coach & it’s possible. You just move around a couple of players like the Leafs the other night when they switched Max Domi with Pontus Holmberg on the 2nd line. The big problem right now is that Newhook couldn’t win a faceoff if his life depended on it. When you regularly lose the faceoff it means that you spend 30-45 seconds chasing the puck & by the time you get it back it’s time to get off the ice. The other huge problem on that line is Patrick Laine. Laziest player on the ice & he’s a turnover machine. He scored most of his goals on the powerplay & now he can’t score mostly because the set play has become too predictable. Demidov played a good game last night & i’d pit him on the #1 pp unit instead of Laine & i’d move Caufield back to his regular spot on the left circle.
Savard has been terrible in this series. He’s on his last legs. Struble hasn’t been much better. He had one hit in game 1 & zero hits last night. One of these two could easily be scratched from the lineup in favor of Wifi. Hutson played much better last night & so did Mathison. I re-watched the game this morning & was impressed by the habs’ effort in the first & third periods. But once again Monty was fantastic & so was Thompson. The habs had several great chances to tie it but were robbed by Thompson or simply ran into some bad luck. As for Monty he couldn’t do anything on the two goals. One goal deflected off Savard’s skate & the other one was a bit of a flukie goal.
I’m convinced that the habs can win the next two home games but i really hope Wifi is in the lineup. I’d like to add that many will say that Laine should be taken out of the lineup however i think he’ll stay in because they don’t really have anyone to replace him. No Oliver Kapanen or Pezzetta aren’t the answer.
