The issue with the Sandin-Bogosian pairing is that neither is that Sandin has significant footspeed issues and Bogosian isn't fast enough to cover for him. We saw that turn into 2 goals against in one (important) game.
Randy, we brought Bogo here to provide some snarl and balance the pairings ...i think he has done his part so far. Bogo was really good in game 2.
Dermott might get a few games if we move on to face the jets, but there is no way he's sitting off against this habs team who's game plan is to play as physical as possible. Only way he sits is if he gets hurt.
I like Dermott but he absolutely gives up breakaways due to pinching too hard on turnovers. And on those plays he gets caught near the redline, cant catch up and interferes(penalties). Hes pretty horrible at giving up breakaways tbh. He doesnt read the speed of the game in any zone which is what always gets him into trouble and why he's not in the lineup. He just hasn't progressed as we'd hoped this year.
Don't let the pursuit of truculence let you ice a worse team, we had a whole era of leaf hockey to show why that doesn't work.
I wouldn't do that with a guy that young in games this important. Just play him with Dermott, we saw that work really well
If anything it's the opposite, right? Habs are a small and fast forward group that has the most potential to exploit that weakness....like if Dermott opened the series we're probably up 2-0 given that both of their goals in game 1 were exploiting this exact issue.
Freddie’s $ is going to Hyman and a goalie to tandem with Campbell
I do like him with bogo too though.
More with the combo of Sandin with Bogosian. Sandin absolutely needs someone to be able to cover him in on stretch plays, he's just not fast enough in a straight line to play without that protection and Bogosian is a good enough bottom pairing dman but he's not fast enough to cover Sandin where Dermott is.
I absolutely agree with this but I also feel that the net front presence and board play of bogo offsets that. Also he is a good enough puck mover.
I like Dermott better on the boards, better puck handler and more likely to come away with the puck and move it out cleanly where Bogo disrupts but then often gives it back because he's not a great puck handler. Agree that Bogo is a bigger body and more physical but I think we misinterpret Dermott as being small or soft and neither is really true.
I have always thought Dermott is very tough and has a good mean streak too.
I like Bogo too, I just think that Dermott's speed is necessary on that pairing against a fast team. I'm fine with him playing with either Sandin or Bogosian really, I just hate that always being exposed to stretch plats when our defense are on the forward side of center.
