Article: The Wild Need A Malkin And Letang To Truly Contend

[Tom Schreier]

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[Pewterschmidt]

Just a couple hall of famer’s.  No big whoop.  At a minimum they need two legit top 6 forwards added to this lineup.  When Foligno, NoJo, senko, and Ogz are your best top 6 options you know what you are. Everything will fix itself when 48 yr old slap Nutz returns to our top 6.  
But P-goblin it’s only been 2 games….its the identical one and done core that’s now past its prime + rinse-senko + a wave of prospects getting their feet wet.  

[Pewterschmidt]

And if the Guerin regime throws any more assets away on defensemen, we need an intervention

[0 Stanley Cups]

Malkin would be nice, but there's little chance of that happening, what would we have to give up?  Letang, absolutely not!  BG plays hardball with Rossi, then reclaims Tarasenko, sure he can still fire the puck, but has been otherwise invisible.  Yes, it would've helped to have Zuccy on our second line, but he's 38, his absence from our lineup shouldn't be this critical.  I'm willing to wait and see with Tarasenko for about 20 games, but it's not looking good.

2nd line: Ek, RW-Hartman, LW-Hinostroza. 3rd line: C-Haight, Foligno, Tarasenko.  4th line: C-Yurov, Trenin, JoJo.  Keep rotating Yurov and Ohgren until one of them shows up.

Jiricek should've played against his former team over Bogo, it's the second game of the season, he would've been absolutely motivated against CBJ.

[Citizen Strife]

What I've seen from Buium has given me hope that he has something special, even this early.

The first line and Power Play are buzzing.  Hartman "could" be the temp option for the 2nd line, but that is presuming you want Trenin or Yurov there instead.  Couldn't hurt to try.  Foligno isn't the answer, Yurov and Ohgren weren't, and I doubt some 1st/2nd liner in a trade comes cheap.

I get the inclination to separate Kap and Boldy to create better balance, but that first line is too good to fuck with.  Find a different solution.

 

Edited 1 hour ago by Citizen Strife

[Pewterschmidt]

32 minutes ago, Citizen Strife said:

I get the inclination to separate Kap and Boldy to create better balance, but that first line is too good to fuck with.

This group currently has one top tier 1st line, two middling? third lines, and a 4th energy line.  
hear me out: would it be crazy to put yurov with 97 and move Boldy to second.  97 makes everyone better and this might be the training wheels to unlock yurov as an nhl’r.  Boldy on 2 creates a competent 2nd line.  And remaining spare parts make bottom 6.  This group shouldn’t be trying to steal 5 more games this season.  This group should be on boarding its prospects as we head into the third 5 yr plan

[Citizen Strife]

Yurov and Ohgren are both kinda "there" on whatever line and whatever role they are doing.  This isn't a Rossi on the 3rd line situation where he were so successful with Foligno, Rossi got called to play in the Top 6 pretty much all the time since 

Hartman is a scorer to a certain extent, and can probably fit that line better than Foligno, Mojo, etc.  If Ohgren or Yurov show offensive skills or solid defense in say games 5, 10, 20, sure.  But in the first few games, they are pretty much where their skills have shown them to be.

The team doesn't have the luxury of maybes. I hope games like Columbus aren't the norm.  LA and Dallas won't make it easy.

Edited 28 minutes ago by Citizen Strife