His line was the best forechecking line and he should have had an assist on the cuylle goal
He wasnt great but there were many players worse including ziWORSTejad
Exactly.
Mika was Zibanebad last night. Plexy Rexy ain't got a thing on Mika after last night. All-day with the one timer and every shot either went into the goalie's chest or got glass.
Kakko was meh. Should've had the assist, still too unwilling to shoot, still holding onto the puck too long and getting pinned on the boards, still not mean or aggressive enough to succeed playing the physical grinding style he's trying to. That line was decent on the forecheck, hemmed in Columbus, but didn't contribute a ton of grade a's though they really didn't give up much and were sound defensively. A fair amount of their lack of scoring can be attributable to Bonino, who's way out of his element outside of the 4th line at this point. The guy is a stiff, slow skater who's not strong on his edges...he just makes up for that with strong defensive awareness/positioning, faceoff skills, and a willingness to block shots. Kind of hard to produce offensively with an anchor like that, and that when you do get an assist, the goal gets wiped.
If Kreider and Mika need a winger with speed, give them Vesey and make that the third line when Chytil comes back. Let Kakko, Chytil, Cuylle be top 6 with 10-16-13, or put the French bread line back together and have Trocheck center Kakko and Cuylle.