MMC
Global Moderator
With an optional skate this morning, it's unclear what the blue line will look like with Pavel Mintyukov returning from a bout of food poisoning which caused him to miss Sunday's game. But based on yesterday's practice, there will be a bit of line shuffling with the forwards sans the Vatrano-Strome-Terry line.
Robby Fabbri and Alex Killorn will swap lines and Isac Lundeström––who returns from an upper-body injury––and Mason McTavish will do the same. The idea is to jumpstart the rest of the lines offensively as the Vatrano-Strome-Terry line has been doing most of the heavy lifting so far.
"(McTavish's) line has not done anything," Cronin said. "We were all expecting Mac to take a big jump. McTavish should be a 30-goal scorer in this league. He can shoot a puck, he's strong as a bull. He gets up and down the ice pretty well. He's not a razzle-dazzle skill guy. He should be like (Brady) Tkachuk in Ottawa––a power forward who just lives at the other team's net.
He's got to drive pucks deep and with Leason and McGinn, they're just going to forecheck. Get them in deep and get in front of the other team's net or get into that pocket and rip shots. Your game's very simple. I think when he gets with other players, he tries to be a skilled guy. And that doesn't mean he can't use his skill. But I think his food chain, the top, has got to be to drive the game, get to the front of the net and win puck battles on the cycle."