The team as a whole was starting to gain some traction, yeah Friday was brutal. Not that their chances at the playoffs were great, now it'll be miraculous.
The lines at practice today, from Stepneski:
Benn-Spezza-Cole
Roussel-Eakin-Garbutt
McKenzie-Fiddler-Ritchie
Moen-Horcoff-Sceviour
Hemsky's still on the shelf, raise your hand if that comes as a shock, so naturally there's still plenty of shuffling ahead. I don't know how long Ruff keeps Spezza up there with Benn. Before all the injuries Cole-Spezza-Hemsky had been clicking as a line, so I would expect Ruff will try to reunite them once Hemsky returns. But still who to center the top line. Benn has done it before, so maybe he centers and Ritchie moves back to RW there, but who to play at LW? I don't envy Lindy these decisions.
With Patrick Nemeth getting closer to returning, maybe toss Daley up front, ala Burns/Byfuglien. What do the Stars have to lose at this point. Desperate times, yada yada. But first Nemeth has to be cleared for game action and I haven't seen a timetable for that yet. He worked hard on cardio while he was rehabbing so his conditioning should be close to game ready. And he's been cleared to practice and is doing so without the no-contact jersey. One would suspect it's just a matter of regaining strength in the arm and hand and he'll be good to go.
The move to put Daley in as a forward is just a theory I saw posited on twitter, but seriously how crazy would it really be at this point? The playoffs are looking like a long shot, and without Seguin it's hard to see a push coming. Why not one last Hail Mary, it's so crazy it just might work, here goes nothing gamble? He has enough offense to warrant a look and as depleted as the forward group looks it could be worth a one or two game trial. Just something that kind got me thinking and spitballing.