I think it's clear he was trying to make several lines that could provide some degree of offense. Turns out it was a little too thin, so he switched it up.
Boldy and Johansson have had chemistry in the past, so he's probably trying to rekindle that and get Johnasson going offensively by adding in our best offensive player, Kaprizov. It didn't work, and that's fine, it was worth trying to milk some offense out of a player that they need it from now that there are injuries. Now, if he goes back to it again right away, that's a problem,
I think my main problems with it, to try to summarize as succinctly as possible, are that
1) I disagree that Boldy and Johansson have ever had chemistry, I think Johansson has had periods that are less bad, or even solid play, and that he's greatly benefitted from playing with much better players in Boldy and Eriksson Ek.
2) So therefore I disagree with trying to ignite anything within Johansson, because those stretches are the aberration, not the norm, and can't be reliably predicted or induced. It's like trying to squeeze blood from a stone.
3) Hynes possibly doesn't recognize that, or just refuses to act on the recognition if it's there. In those situations, he should be acting quicker.
4) Spreading out the offense is fine if you have tertiary players who are within a certain deviation of the two primary players on that line. Zuccarello is an example of a guy who is a clear tertiary player but within the acceptable deviation from guys like Kaprizov and Boldy. Hartman is a better example of it because he's more clearly a tertiary player, but still close enough.
5) Johansson is not, but he's been treated as if he is throughout most of his time here. I don't know what they see in him that precludes him from playing a bottom six role, unless it's purely that his game isn't at all suited for a bottom six role, but that means he should be scratched or waived, not elevated in the lineup.
Ultimately, you're right, it would be nice to see Hynes learn from this and not elevate Johansson anymore, but the problem is we've watched Johansson for 15 games this season, it's obvious he isn't this caliber of player, but when injuries happened, he was already the one elevated, so expecting Hynes to learn much from this and adjust accordingly would mean that we as observers aren't learning much.
Of course, Johansson's role on this team is more the fault of Guerin, who has assembled a reasonable (albeit overpaid) bottom six of Foligno-Gaudreau-Hartman/Trenin-Khusnutdinov-Lauko, but hasn't assembled a proper top six as evidenced by the fact that Johansson has a role there at all.
It's hard to predict lines when Ek and Zuccarello are injured, Ohgren isn't really ready for a top six spot, but we have too many bottom six players. I'd like to see something like this though when we're more healthy:
Kaprizov-Rossi-Hartman
Ohgren-Ek-Boldy
Foligno-Gaudreau-Lauko
Johansson-Khusnutdinov-Trenin
When Zuccarello comes back, I'd bump Hartman down to the Boldy line, and put Ohgren back in the AHL, and change nothing else.
as succinctly as possible
I lied
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