So what's everyone's thoughts on the effectiveness of each line (F and D) so far? Obviously everyone was mostly crappy last game (outside of some individual efforts), and I agree with other that say that Killer should be moved off Leo's line to make them more dangerous. But of these lines, and particularly D pairings, anyone like what they're seeing with balance?
I like the lineup in theory but not in practice so far.
Line 1: honestly I've been thinking about it a lot and I think Cutter and Leo are getting more flak than they deserve. Yes it would be great if they could just step in and be super effective and it's concerning that they're not but the more I've thought about it the more it hits me that Killorn being such a massive net negative with the puck on their stick really held them back. These are still two very inexperienced players that are going to make mistakes. Everything past the kids' own mistakes with the puck on their stick (and they never really ended up with possession often) was filled in by Killorn giving away possession almost every time he touched the puck. Instead of getting more tries to work what works with the puck on their stick and fix what doesn't, they spent that much more time chasing after the puck and defending because Killorn kept giving it away. I think for the time being you demote Killer and move someone else up that can facilitate offensive flow like Z or Vatrano...hell even Strome would be an improvement right now the way he's playing.
Second line: the big problem here is Fabbri is a little too fast for the line or plays too fast and Mac has been really bad with the puck on his stick. Zegras is looking solid but so far it hasn't been a good fit. Some ideas I've liked that I've seen thrown around is put Z in the center role and see if Mac on the wing plays better. Or move Z off and try the Vatrano pairing to see if that sparks Mac to play better.
Third: I like Troy basically having his own line and easier match ups and I actually think, despite all logic, Strome's puck management has been a lot better since the move to center and imo he's been one of our less awful forwards so far. I think that LW spot is the flex spot.
Fourth line: don't fix what ain't broke. This is the only line worth a shit right now.
There's a couple options I can seek working and they all revolve around moving Killorn from 1RW to 3LW:
Cutter-Leo-Z
Fabbri-Mac-Vatrano
Cutter-Leo-Vatrano
Fabrri-Z/Mac-Mac/Z
Failing that they might need to get even more creative and split up Leo and Cutter. But, I'm also of the belief that the first couple games were an unideal circumstance to get the team's game going and we need a couple more games this week to see if there's improvement or if change is needed. I just have zero faith that Killorn will improve the point that he's going to facilitate anything good on that kid line. Maybe he can become less of a gaping black hole of possession suck but I don't have high hopes for him being a bona fide cog in what you'd want to be a well chugging machine.
Tldr: don't give me thought experiments when I'm on my lunch break.