Edited Nov. 11, 2022 at 7:17 p.m.
Maybe call up Phillips (Decent Passer and Excellent Finisher) and one of Zary (makes me nervous being -8 and having 19PIM) or Pelletier.
Could use more speed to open up the ice and passing lanes too. Another Playmaker for the 2nd line would be nice (sure would like Kerfoot 50-75% retained, Patrick Kane, Ivan Barbashev or Tarasenko), but till we acquire another Better Passing Playmaker, we might as well go with speed at C & RW with Toffoli trailing for the back pass/one time opportunity. Dube's faster, but I think Ruzicka's got the Better Hands and Vision. I'd sit Lucic in favour of the Faster Accelerating Ritchie; guys (including D-Men) are just dangling around Looch and making him look really bad and he's just not doing much in the O-Zone.
Huberdeau-Kadri-Phillips
Toffoli-Lindholm-(Dube/Ruzicka)
Mangiapane-Backlund-Coleman
(Pelletier/Zary)-Lewis-Ritchie
Problem is until we get guys back healthy and Gilbert & DeSimone are sent back down, there's not enough room on the roster to bring more guys up atm. Can't waive Lucic and sending Rooney, Ritchie, Ruzicka and/or Mackey down to make space could lead to one of more of them being claimed. Would have to send Gilbert or DeSimone down to bring one of Phillips, Pelletier or Zary up
Really miss having Stone and his Big Blast in the line-up as well. That's been one the best high danger scoring opportunities for us imo. Whether Stone scores, takes a player or their stick out by blocking his shot or creating juicy rebounds, his shot is very effective.