Likely one of Crosby, MacKinnon or Point moves to the wing. Opens up a 4th line center spot. Example could be:
Bennett-McDavid-Reinhart
Marchand-Crosby-MacKinnon
Konecny-Point-Marner
Hagel-Cirelli-Stone
Jarvis
I actually think this is pretty close to the lines they'll want on opening night. Cooper seems that he'll AT LEAST have the Nova Scotia Line together for a period. Konency-Point-Marner makes sense from the 2017 WC. Hagel and Cirelli already play together on Tampa.
FWIW, these are the lines that TSN posted on the evening the lineup was more or less leaked:
Reinhart - McDavid - Marner
Marchand - Crosby - MacKinnon
Hagel - Point - Stone
Bennett - Cirelli - Konecny
Jarvis
That might give an indication of where Cooper's head is at with respect to lines.
Yes, I'm aware Reinhart is a RHS. Can he play the left side? Don't see any reason why he can't adapt to his off wing. I doubt he'll be carrying the puck or looking to distribute it all that much with McDavid and Marner on his line. Maybe his board play will be impacted; we'll have to see. On a more positive note, setting Reinhart up on his off wing would obviously present more opportunity for one-timers in the o-zone and potentially give Reinhart, arguably our best pure shooter at this point, a better angle at the net.
I strongly suspect Cooper will at least try the "Nova Scotia" line to start the tournament. I see no issue with that.
I think Cooper will utilize the Point line (with Hagel and Stone) as more of a matchup line against the opponent's top lines, and the Cirelli line (with Bennett and Konecny) as more of an agitation/energy line. The Point line has the better players and should get more ES minutes than the Cirelli line. All three forwards on the Point line are defensively responsible, and can score. If Cooper deploys his lines similar to how Babcock did in 2010, 2014 and 2016, the Cirelli line would get 2-3 ES shifts/period and Cirelli/Konecny would likely play the PK. The one player on that line who I think can work his way up the lineup is Konecny.
I'm not overly concerned about Bennett. He was probably a reach, but at the time of the roster selection he was at/near a PPG pace and coming off back-to-back highly impactful playoff runs. It was obvious the management team and Cooper wanted a certain kind of player that can get under the skin of his opponents, bang around in the corners, lay a few hits to change momentum, chip-in offensively, and has proven he can raise his level of play in the playoffs. I doubt him and Scheifele, for example, were competing for the same role. Given we already have Cirelli and Konecny (two players who play a somewhat similar game as Bennett), I would have opted for Celebrini instead, but whatever. He'll have his opportunity in 2016 along with Bedard, Johnston, and likely a few other young stars.
