Komarov-Barzal-Zajac would be a fun line!..

im sure trotz is thinking about it - if its even possible, this was his worst coaching performance of the year.

Idk what to say, think or feel. Trotz's decision-making isn't doing us any favor, but the execution just isn't there either. I couldn't watch tonight, so I won't try to pinpoint anything in particular, but something is really, really off and I don't understand why and how

trotz is mismatching skillsets and playing too many guys that can't move the puck or generate offense. How can you expect to win when Coburn, greene, mayfield, zajac , Martin, and clutterbuck are in the lineup at the same time?

Barzal + Eberle have been one of the best duo's in the league this season in terms of sustaining pressure in the ozone and generating high danger scoring chances. Trotz putting zajac with them killed their momentum and they haven't been the same in weeks. Bailey was with them tonight and they had one good scoring chance. It's a problem. The 2nd line was zajac-nelson-palmieri, which was the worst line tonight. Way too slow of a line, they had the worst xGA and zajac made multiple errors. The 4th line has bad the entire year...

He put in Coburn for Dobson despite the fact that dobson played a role in both PP goals last game. Isles went 4v4 in the 3rd, who did trotz put out? The 4th line.Shortly after the isles went 4v3 and trotz kept barzal on the bench...I mean cmon lol - I was listening to the caps broadcast and they were laughing , they couldn't believe it.

Also you saw last game on the pp dobson moved the puck, there was great puck movement, tonight it was pulockholding the puck at the point. Also pulock should not be quaterbacking the pp. If you want to put him in bc of his shot fine, but you have to get a puck mover in there to run it.
Brayden coburn should be sent on a very long vacation to beautiful sweden, let him come back when the seasons over. That was one of the worst trades in franchise history.

Also one thing mdc does very well is help sustain pressure, getting to loose pucks, fighting hard in the corners.

Dobson knows what he’s going to do with the puck before it gets to him - when eberle passed it to him he didn’t hold onto the puck , with one motion he passed it to barzal which got the pkers moving. Can’t believe he got taken out for coburn after having a primary assist on the PP last game

Agreed, he’s a great forechecker. Zajac is awful

I just don't understand why the whole team went into the line blender after getting someone that would supplement Lee's loss. Play the lineup that wonyou games and put the top line talent where you lost top line talent. That's all.

Why force Zajac into the lineup? Why bench Dobson for Coburn? Why put bailey on the top line?

I love trotz and am in no position to question him, but I don't understand the line of thinking here

That is exactly why the team is terrible right now - for all the talk of chemistry, lou/trotz ruined it by trying to force zajac into the top 6 and not putting palmieri in a position to succeed. Palmieri is known for not being able to create on his own and trotz never has him on a line with a playmaker. Makes no sense.

What some fans don’t get is that one of the reasons the isles were elite defensively this season is because of the amount of time they spent in the offensive zone. They were top 5 among all teams in high danger scoring chances even after lee went down. Thats because the 1st line (barzal+ eberle duo) , 2nd line (beau-Nelson-bailey) and the pageau-wahlstrom duo were dominating teams. Now trotz feels it’s necessary to play zajac as our 1st line center and remove wahlstrom from the lineup. It’s bizarre. It’s almost as if he’s trying to lose on purpose