Sullivan declined to comment on the rest of the lineup, but based on the morning skate, there appeared to be no other changes to the forward lines or defense pairs.
Auston Matthews continued to center Jake Guentzel and Matt Boldy. Dylan Larkin continued to center Kyle Connor and Tage Thompson. Matthews and Thompson each scored a power-play goal, but the lines are a work in progress at 5-on-5.
“Yeah, I think they’re capable of making more of an impact on the game, and we’ll walk the line of trying to let them play through stuff,” Sullivan said. “Obviously, there’s good players on those lines. We’re trying to give them a little bit of chemistry, and we’ll go from there. Certainly, we think they’re capable of really making an impact on the game.”
Sullivan called it a “feel thing.”
“I think it’s a coach’s instinct, intuition, whatever you want to call it,” he said. “We have constant conversations amongst our coaching staff, and we’re watching it. We have conversations on the bench, in between periods, after games, in between days.”
It remains to be seen whether Oettinger, defenseman Jackson LaCombe and forward Clayton Keller will dress for a game.
“Everybody that’s here is in the conversation every single game,” Sullivan said. “We reevaluate after every game based on what we see. At the end of the day, performance will be the dictator.
“We communicate regularly on the decisions we make and give them the whys, and then we go from there. But we have so much respect for every player that’s part of this roster. They’re all elite players, and they’re all capable of helping us win, so these aren’t easy decisions.
“At the end of the day, we’re trying to make the best decisions for the team.”
