Was scratching Vanek and Zucker cutting off the nose to spite the face?

Coyle and Haula lead our team the last 11 games with 5 points. Pominville has 2. Granlund has 2. Zucker has 1.

Vanek has 3. Is that horrendous? Absolutely. However, Vanek's stats are suffering along with the team's slide whereas Granlund and Pominville's stats have been consistently awful for the entirety of the season.

At least Vanek has the potential to make plays when he's on the ice. Pominville and Granlund do nothing but turn the puck over. I'm aware Vanek has a propensity to do this as well, but his upside in the lineup is far greater than the other two.

Granlund and Pominville should be the ones sitting or playing reduced minutes.

Give Parise somebody to work with for fuck's sake. It's absolutely ridiculous. Yeo deserves at least some of the blame here, but he tried to send a message by benching the wrong players.

Parise should be playing with Haula/Koivu at center and Coyle on the opposite wing. Pominville and Granlund should be on the third line if you're going to keep them together at all.

Don't sell out your best player by playing him the two most underwhelming players on your roster. It obviously isn't working. Put players in a position to succeed. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.

If you want to make a case for benching Zucker, go ahead, but I'd still rather have him out there than Pominville and Granlund even with his present offensive struggles. At least he brings effort and speed.

Regardless of the lineup, I really don't think this team has the top end talent required to truly compete with the upper echelon teams in this league. I'm not even sure there's a good, quick way to fix it. I'm resigning to the depressing idea that this team is going to muddle around in mediocrity for the next few years.

/r/wildhockey Thread Parent