Egor Chinakhov

Eh, I have a couple of things to say to that before signing off for the day.

One is that when Geno was separated from Yegor Chinakhov late in the season, and nobody could understand that, like nobody made any sense out of that, you're gonna have to take my word for it that he did not stay quiet.

And the other point that I have to make is that there was no indication in Dubas' little side release of what it was that he, and Geno, and Dan Muse discussed, only that they discussed some things.

What if it was load management? What if it was playing fewer games, or even just logging less ice time, or the power play, or who knows what? So I, I don't think it was necessarily about Geno making a fuss, um, about moving lines, even though I, I'll tell you again that he did make a fuss.

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Today's J1Q comes from Doug, who says, "DK, who would you like to see as the first player over the boards in the second power play unit this coming season?" If the top unit remains largely unchanged with the possible exception of Evgeni Malkin, who would be your next man up to maybe score on the rush reentering the offensive zone or accepting a pass from Sidney Crosby or Eric Karlsson in the zone as they're jumping into the attack for a Brian Rust or Rickard Rakell? Is it Geno? Is it Yegor Chinakhov? Is it Ben Kindle? Is it Alexander Nikishin? I'm just kidding about that last one.

Actually, Doug, I would take Nikishin in a heartbeat because it would mean he's on the roster.

I'm all in on this incomplete Nikishin trade.

That's just not the composition of the forwards that are here on this roster.

So if Kindle is on the second line, and he's centering, who obviously would be his wingers, Evgeny Malkin and Yegor Chinakhov, he's gonna put up some even strength points.

If he's on a third line between Nick Robertson and Andrei Kuzmenko, well, he, he's gonna put up some points.

So I, I don't know that there's that big a deal to be made on that front.

You would have to get a lot of goals from Andrei Kuzmenko.

You'd have to get a lot of goals from Nick Robertson, and you'd have to get an uptick from, say, Yegor Chinakhov, from, you know, from Ben Kindle.

But what about the 14 goals that Noel Acciari got you on the fourth line? Yes, 14.

He had 14 goals this past season.

... to put him on there, first unit.

I want to put Yegor Chinakhov on there.

I'm just not...

You know, we can all say that.

Maybe divide the power play time more evenly between the two units.

Everybody says that, but then what you do with Cody between power play one and power play two is you say, "All right, less Sid or less Karlsson." A- and it's, it, it also, Kuzmenko kinda diverts from what I think would be management's main point here, which is to get more duty for Egor Chinakhov and that shot.

It's crazy that his shot's-- Not only is it not utilized on the power play sufficiently, he doesn't go out on six on fives, which I never understand.

You pull the goalie? How do you not have that shot on the ice? He can put it in from anywhere at any point in the matter of a split second.