My only qualm is sitting Schultz. But all 4 of our RHD are so good.

TVR is so good idk how you take him out and Jensen is our best RS defensive Dman ... I would sit Carlson tbh but that’ll never happen.

I’d honestly consider sitting Dillon, as he makes mistakes at the worst times. But his style of play is suited perfectly for playoff hockey and Lavi insists on lefties on the left and righties on the right. The good thing about all of this is that we have many high end defensemen going into the playoffs.

Ovi on the 3rd line?

Yeah. I mean I would like to imagine it as 3 lines that have 1st line capabilities. Like Kessel on the 3rd line. Ovechkin would either pull the other teams best defense or play vs inferior defense either way it’s a massive win for the Capitals.

I'll start this off by saying that I agree that Sprong deserves some top six minutes, and can drive play when given that opportunity (hence three goals in two games when playing on the top line with Kuznetsov and Wilson). Here's my qualm with Ovi with Eller as his center:

5 on 5 goal generation/60:

With Eller: 2.57 GF/60, 2.57 GA/60
With Backstrom: 3.98 GF/60, 2.92 GA/60
With Kuznetsov: 3.71 GF/60, 2.5 GA/60

Eller and Ovi don't seem to click in the eye test either. Backstrom and Kuznetsov have that sixth Ovi sense and tend to get him the puck in better scenarios.

What I'd probably go with is:

Ovi - Kuznetsov - Wilson (3.64 GF/60, 2.91 GA/60)
Sprong - Backstrom - Mantha (Mantha and Backstrom: 3.05 GF/60, 2.28 GF/60; Sprong and Backstrom: 2.73 GF/60, 1.36 GA/60)
Sheary - Eller - Oshie (Have surprisingly played 2:55 in time on ice together, figured this would be a pretty good line): Sheary w/ Eller 2.39 GF/60, 2.09 GA/60; Oshie w/ Eller: 4.68 GF/60, 1.56 GA/60
Hagelin - Dowd - Hathaway (Because you know Lavy is keeping this line together come hell or high water)

Great point - plus forward minutes have been relatively (key word) spread out / even-ish. So putting Ovi on 3rd line balances scoring & doesn't necessarily mean his time on ice will dramatically decrease.

Do agree though - Eller and Ovi don't seem to click in the eye test - but would be interesting!