I didn't think Gaudreau looked good on that line, Nuge and Mak were kinda just doing their thing. One thing that annoyed me was that Gaudreau would stop skating with the puck once he had it, with Dru-Nuge-Mak they constantly keep skating.
Gaudreau just doesn't have the speed to blow by guys like a McDavid or MacKinnon. He's much more effective at medium speeds where he can make quick cuts into open space. Outside of a few turnovers and one missed pass I though he had a pretty effective game once he was put on that line.
1) Made a nice play to steal the clearing attempt along the boards and fire a cross-seam pass to Nugent-Hopkins, which led to Rielly's goal.
2) Quarterbacked the most dangerous-looking powerplay shift for a good 20 seconds before Rielly injured the Russian PKer eventually leading to Nugent-Hopkins' goal.
3) Read the play well to pick up a loose puck and set up Gostisbehere's late post on the 6 on 4.
Plus his possession stats all floated around 70%, so it's not like he was being hemmed in on D or anything. Honestly, if that Gostisbehere shot goes in, we're talking about what a great comeback it was with Gaudreau leading the charge. Game of inches.
Also count me among those who don't understand the deployment decisions. To me it seems McDavid is a stronger 5v5 player than 5v4 where it's more static and his best asset (speed) is underutilized. Why not change to the Gaudreau line earlier in the powerplay and then give McDavid's line more 5v5 time right after? McDavid's assist came from a transition play in the first period, but yet he started in the offensive zone 92% of the time. Seems odd to me that you'd ride a player hard for 20 minutes in a game, but yet still feel the need to shelter them so heavily.