shmenguin wrote:sil wrote:Sutter has to play. He simply has to. We have no other forward who does what he does in the defensive zone.
didn't know he was getting scratched.
if you spread the talent in the bottom 6, their playing time starts to equalize. for 3rd line to 4th line, it's now about 13 min to 8 min of ES time. you can probably get it to 11 min to 10 min with a little planning. even if it's something like 12 to 9,
jokinen has easily been 3 minutes a game better than sutter in his time here.
I think most of that has do with him being a stop-gap for Sid's absense. They just aren't the same type of player (Sutter and Jokinen) nor do we need them to be. Sutter will remain in his role, and remain getting his third line minutes, and Jokinen won't replace that spot when Sid comes back. You didn't directly state that you thought he would, but you did directly state that Jokinen is a better player. That I really don't agree with, at least not from a traditional third line center point of view. And I do acknowledge you aren't stating Jokinen should be in that spot over Sutter.
Jokinen really gives us someone who can pretty much play anywhere he's needed in the postseason, and that's a wonderful thing to have, but I still don't think Jokinen is the better player. If it came down to it, and one of those two had to be the scratch...I'd scratch Jokinen in favor of Sutter.