During the game today I thought to myself, what's the problem? Then I started thinking, when we were at our best, who were some of the players in our lineup? As much as any of us wouldn't like to admit it, the best rosters we had were with Arnott and Johansen as our top centers and Legwand/Ribeiro and Fisher as our second line centers. I think we can all agree to that. Even if people want to debate that, we'd be missing the bigger point.
As much as we love ROR and his compete level, he is a 2C. Unfortunately, he's the best we've got up the middle so he's not where he should be slotted in the lineup. We all knew going into the season that filling the 2C slot was going to be crucial to our success. We hear Bruno chirping late in the preseason that he needs to see more from Novak and then before the end of game 1, he's already swapped him out of the lineup. His jobs as coach is to put Novak in a place to succeed. While some guys respond to getting "called out", it's still on him as a coach to get the most out of him.
As much as I'd like to say Bruno has screwed the pooch so far, he's not the only one to look at. Trotz is the one who gave him this lineup. Trotz is the one who's said we need to get better centers. Well, we went out and signed two wingers, a defenseman and re-signed a soon to be 30 year old goalie to an 8 year deal coming off arguably his worst season in the NHL. I get that centers are hard to acquire. I get that talented centers are even harder to acquire. We've hopefully got some help coming in Svechkov and Surin in a few years but that doesn't help this group now.
Until we solve the mystery down the middle, we will always be, at best, a mushy middle team. The other saving grace of this team has always been a strong defensive pipeline and right now, we're dry there as well until Molendyk and Gibson get here.
I get wanting to bring in winning players and try for a Cup while we have Forsberg and Josi in their primes. The problem still exists that we're relying far too much on tweeners to fill the bottom of the roster than letting the kids play and allowing them to make mistakes. Watching today I'm like, where's Tomasino? I see Smith take a penalty after the whistle 200 feet from our own net yet he still gets shifts. To me, that sets a terrible example. That penalty is inexcusable and while a friend of mine and I discussed, he said it got the team fired up, point well taken, you still don't take penalties like that. We have no idea what Tomasino did or didn't do to ride the pine. I then noticed Evangelista was getting the same treatment. I'm like, what gives? Smith and McC do lots of dumb stuff out there, blow coverages, yet get ice time, late in games, when we're down a goal, yet we have offensively gifted players riding the pine instead of being on the ice trying to get us out of the hole? How does this make any sort of sense?
While I'm there, why is Fabbro still getting scratched? If I'm him, Tomasino and Parssinen, I'd ask to get moved. The constant in and out of the lineup. The constant benching and for what, we have no idea has got to be demoralizing for them and any other kid that is trying to make this team.
If you want Tomasino to produce, show him videos of Sully and how tenacious he was as a player. Say Phil, this is what we want you to do, shift after shift after shift. Willy was talking about March on the radio yesterday and said, he's not always the nicest guy to be around because he wants to win and he's intense. Pair Tomasino with him and say, this is what we want from you.
Until the playing field is level for all players, the kids and the fans for that matter are going to be frustrated. I'd rather sit the fourth line for a game or two and give Parssinen, Tomasino and ZLH a look. ZLH is the type of guy this lineup needs right now. An in your face, relentless kid with an attitude. Cause here's the thing, no one else on this team is lighting them on fire. You picked him in the draft for a reason, give him a shot. It can't be any worse than what we've already seen.