13F/7D. Hughes and Mercer are the only two forwards actually playing well rn. Can’t believe Mercer played 4C last night as I think that is unacceptable from lindy as he has been a workhorse and he’s been playing well. Maybe doesn’t come up on the scoresheet, but he’s excelling with the eye test. The devils need a spark with their best line in order to spark the rest of the team. I say put our best two forwards (Mercer and Hughes are the best two as of rn, Mercer is not better than Bratt but he’s playing better rn). Then pair them with the physical Miles Wood and give that line some more energy. Second line adds McLeod who I think has been the devils third best forward during this losing streak. Puts effort in all the time and makes good plays. Also physical to where he can protect our captain tn against the crying Florida panthers that think hischier intentionally injured Barkov. I’m also good with switching wood and McLeod but I do think they are the spark we need and they should be playing top 6 minutes as of now. I don’t think they should play top 6 minutes in the long term, but rn, yes. Tatar goes to the third line as I think Tatar haula and Zetterlund could be the depth scoring underrated line that we need right now. I think our worst players on this losing streak are Holtz, Sharangovich, and smith. Holtz I think everyone can agree has been garbage. Sharangovich is useless when he isn’t scoring and is way too streaky. Loses the puck every time and hasn’t used his best and only skill, his shot. He’s played on the pk and has been fine, but otherwise has been invisible. He doesn’t make an impact when he isn’t scoring. Needs to get a lesson by getting benched. Brendan smith has been our worst d man this year and should not be given the opportunity to play. However the last few games where he played forward, he looked like a great fourth liner that knows how to forecheck well. I think give him the nod tn at forward and if he doesn’t play well, consider putting the fourth line of wood McLeod and smith together for another game. If that doesn’t work, healthy scratch him bc he is a liability on the backend. Play Haula at 3C as he should not be getting top 6 minutes right now. If he continues to play poorly over this game, slot Boqvist in that 3C spot and switch it up mid game. The fourth line of smith and Boqvist should get a few shifts tn and add someone on the wing with them, but they need a wake up call and shouldn’t play a lot tonight. Dougie has been soft and noticeably bad. He’s been playing scared and his work rate is by far the lowest on the team so he should get a demotion in terms of minutes imo for the time being. Play 7D tonight (smith doesn’t count as a d tn with this lineup). Also I think Bahl should get more of an opportunity going forward as I think later in the season, he should be playing instead of smith. Very random but our dman need to learn how to shoot the puck because our system this year has led this team to have open shots for defenseman. If our dmen are better shooters, we’d have a lot more offensive success. FYI I’m mostly talking about graves, but that’s my only real complaint about him this season. I think siegenthaler has been better so I’d like him on the top pairing. Okhotyiuk gets a chance and is playing top 4 minutes with severson. Their play styles compliment each other well and they played together last year when Nikita got called up. We need his physicality and passion in the lineup. And we need it in a big way. Also severson gets bumped up bc he’s barely played this season and has played with Brendan smith… that should say enough on why he is playing poorly. Sevo also had a great game last night. Him and Okhotyiuk get the second pair tn. Vitek got the start yesterday so Blackwood gets it tn. Let me know what you think devils fans
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