Pens should make the playoffs now. Isles sure **** the bed last night. Caps were missing half their team. LOL

Everyone and their grandma knows Carter will be on that 3rd line.

Pettersson skated with contact yesterday. He isn't eligible to come off LTIR until Thursday. Could possibly play in CBJ

carts def in the lineup as much as you dont want it to happen

Carter has been the 4th line center for almost a month now.

Pettersson skated yesterday. Carter sadly would be in the lineup.

Guentzel - Crosby - Rust
Zucker - Malkin - Rakell
Poehling - Granlund - Heinen
Bonino - Carter - Archibald

Could also see:

Poehling - Carter - Granlund
Heinen - Bonino - Archibald

As much as I hate to see Carter on line 3

The defense is good

Took long enough.

No DOC? Them's fighting words lol

I'd probably flip Poehling and Bonino. Bonino is great defensively and you want Poehling to be able to use his speed on the wing.

Hopefully POJ doesn't lose his spot that would be pretty terrible.

Hed either be a scratch (sadly) or play over Heinen (which I would rather). I'm just going based off realism

Kulikov looked better than POJ in the short time span he had. I'd rather play Kulikov for at least the first 2 games of the playoffs (if we make it). Tonight Kulikov is a game time decision versus Chicago. Hed play 2nd pair with Rutta and POJ will be on the 3rd with Petry

Oh okay - more like a what you think will happen instead of a what you want. I gotcha. And yeah - he needs to play imo. I think they may like him more than Heinen at this point too

Agree to disagree on that one - plus it's 4 games like you said. I think POJ earned his spot - he's had a great rookie campaign. As long as he's not required to bump up to the 1st pair of course.

POJ/Petry is the 3rd pair and Kulikov/Rutta is the 2nd? Feel like those need to be flipped. Plus I'd probably switch those pairs tbh. I feel like both of the more offensive minded guys are on one pair and vice versa.

That's true. I think DOC was in while Bonino was in and Heinen was scratched (at least I hope). That would mean Sully likes him more. The bottom 6 locks have to be Carter (sadly), Granlund, Poehling, Archibald, Bonino. That's 5, so that final spot can be fought with between OC, Heinen, and Nylander

I think that's right but honestly can't remember. Those bottom 2 lines have been cycling around so much with injuries and new players I forget. Yeah - I agree with that. Shame because they're all better than Carter lol. I guess I'd pick DOC just because of his speed and his playstyle fits bottom 6 better than the others to me.

Yeah I was a little shocked to see those pairings as well, but I dont absolutely hate them. Rutta can handle 2nd pair for sure. Hes looked very good defensively and has filled Petterson's role good while hes been out. Petry a bit of a slow start since coming back from injury so that may be why were playing him 3rd pair. I'm sure if Kulikov is not available to play that POJ will be back on the 2nd. I assume we're just experimenting

Agreed

Oh, I'm dumb - these are the morning skate pairings huh?

Rutta can handle 2nd pair for sure - I just don't see a reason for it if Petry is healthy. Petry did maybe a little bit - so that could be a reason. Although he still has like a 55% xGF over that time and played over 20mins per game. It just seems a bit counterintuitive to throw the more defensive guys on the same pair and vice versa instead of splitting them up - but honestly after this season it wouldn't surprise me if Sullivan did that. Yeah you could be right - could just be messing around. I didn't realize you were giving the skate lines/pairings - thought you were giving what your lines/pairings would be.

The pairings from top to bottom were - Dumo-Letang POJ-Petry Kulikov-Rutta. K-R is the 3rd pair. I think you might be mixing them up. Rutta just came back from injury two games ago, while Petry has been back for a few weeks and playing over 20 minutes a night.

I think the pairing suggest that once healthy Sully is going back to the pairings he used prior to the injuries with
Dumo-Letang
Pettersson - Petry
Kulikov - Rutta

I'm just going based off daily faceoff. They usually are right but that would make more sense

I tend to stick with Rorabaugh, Haase, or Shirey for beat stuff. They are at every practice and post most of the daily content. Taylor Haase is good too because of her work with Wilkes. She is on the ball with transactions and cap stuff.