In addition to that outstanding breakdown of GWG by Summer Rose, I think it's very interesting that Coyotes had their 4th line take an O-zone faceoff against top line of Predators. Tocchet had last change if I am not mistaken. Arvidsson I believe had left after taking friendly fire. But it was Johansen, Forsberg, and Duchene out there if I saw correctly. And the puck never left the zone I don't think.
Overtime is very much a chess game in line matching. Tocchet saw Nashville deploy their top line (a tactic presumably to build on the momentum gained by tying the game late), and responded with our best faceoff man and the top defensive pairing. Preds had also just had to pull their top pairing off the ice to get them a little breather. In order to not screw with line chemistry because it wasn't a desperate situation, it was fair enough to give Richardson his usual linemates for the game of Grabner and Hinostroza. Worst case scenario, with them deploying their top forward line and 2nd D pairing but us countering with our 4th line and top pairing, the school of thought by deploying Richardson in an attempt to win the draw was to buy time for our other three forward lines, because if Richardson did lose the draw, our top pairing was rested and could shred any forecheck against. Top line vs. 1st pairing is often a zero-sum equation; it generally results in just the clock getting burned. When Richardson did win the draw, our top pairing of OEL and Demers were experts (as they often are) in simply holding the attacking zone, which is also what you should excel at as a 4th liner in the NHL. Even if you fail, you're on an NHL roster as a 4th liner because of your excellent defense. 4th line + top pairing is an interesting setup for deployment, but it has its merits as a result. We weren't giving up a goal on that shift except for a fluke, and Kuemper wasn't going to let a fluke happen.
We could have peeled the fourth line off one by one while OEL and Demers held down the fort with possession, and gone for a more attacking setup, probably going to our "second" forward line depending on whether we had to change on the fly or work a stoppage. It proved ultimately unnecessary because of the combination of Richardson's faceoff win along with Ryan Johansen and Dante Fabbro's split-second miscommunication of who was supposed to cover/pressure whom. It may have been "just our 4th line" who scored the GWG, but the amount of time and space that Hinostroza had was insane for a "playoff" overtime game. There are very few NHL players who can't make you pay if you gift them that much time and space.
