Moving Thompson to the second line was really dumb

[Cali512]

He has excellent chemistry with skinner and tuck. Yes midlestadt played very good throughout his injury, but skinner and tuck knew how to get Thompson open for his left corner shot. They both have excellent on ice awareness and could create plays to get thompson his best opportunities. We had one of the best first line units in the nhl and we sort of ruined it for depth. It definitely impacted Thompsons performance, and caused us to not have consistent pressure with our first line

Imo, that was one of the dumbest things we've ever done. Putting our best player who had amazing chemistry with our first line to the second line just for depth, was ****ing idiotic. Just because midlestadt did well replacing him doesnt mean changing up our whole lineup. We had one of the best first lines in hockey and we ruined it, which is ****ing stupid. Thompson, skinner, tuck were exceptional together, to expect Thompson to be a powerhouse with another line just to keep some "chemistry" during a week absence makes no sense at all imo. Regardless of our depth issues, if you have a great first line, keep that **** together. Thompson never seemed to get the groove going again and had major issues finding his left snapshot, mostly because we didnt have the players to set him up for it. We honestly wouldve probably made the playoffs if we just allowed them to be together, skinner had a knacked for driving or tightening up the D to get Thompson opportunities. Thompsons stats massively dropped off after this change and no one was able to pick up the slack

If you have a top 10-5 player in the nhl with an extremely consistent line who allows that guy to flourish, dont ****ing change it because his replacement does "pretty good" when he's injured.

[swiper]

Stop starting new threads. Everything here is put into one thread.

[ParanoidAndroid]

Also, we don't need a thread for every miniscule thought that pops into your head.

Nothing was "ruined."

Thompson was injured and not 100% when he came back.

This was an opportunity to see what Mitts can do and he had 13 points in those last 9 games.

[ParanoidAndroid]

If he's our 3rd line center, we are looking really ****ing good for a legit playoff run.

[OpIv37]

If Thompson was healthy, I’d agree with you. But he was playing hurt. Down the stretch, he simply couldn’t handle top line minutes. It’s that simple. It was finding the balance between getting production out of a guy with his skill level without overworking a guy playing hurt.

There was no good option and I’m okay with Granato’s choice. Next season, he’ll be back on the top line, and if he stays healthy, he’ll easily get 50.

[Novacane]

Plus we found out Mittlestadt can produce when paired with talent.

- - - Updated - - -

Plus we found out Mittlestadt can produce when paired with talent.

[JATMtheJATM]

The fact Thompson can move to the wing and mittelstadt can play up and produce is a huge find for the Sabres. It shows they can survive an injury to a key forward and not completely fall off the cliff. This is a really good versatility to have

[swiper]

The opening post is stupid and wrong. The games of both Tuch and Skinner both rose when Mittelstadt was put in at center. They didn't feel the pressure to feed Thompson the puck. So it there wasn't anything stupid about it at all. It was opposite - it was brilliant. And, as pointed out, proved a couple of things about certain players. Mittelstadt never had more than 13 assist in any previous season. This year he had 44. He sees the ice and has great hands. He's not selfish, so paired with Skinner and Tuch turned a losing streak into a winning streak.