Tocchet Teases Potential Flyers Lineup Change; Who Else Should Draw In?

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Who else should draw into the Flyers lineup

Now, Tocchet certainly did not commit to playing Bonk on Wednesday. He teased that he was thinking about it. In my opinion, Juulsen should get the nod here. He is one of those players who, if you’re not noticing him, he’s playing well. That’s been the case with Juulsen.

The next obvious one is that the Flyers need to find a way to get Matvei Michkov back in the lineup. It cannot turn into a thing where he misses a string of games. While yes, he is struggling, Michkov still has the creativity and offensive talent to make a difference. Sometimes players just need a game off to break through. Game 6 is too big a game not to have that sort of X-factor in the lineup.

As for who he comes in for, you cannot take Bump out. Especially not after he was the Flyers’ best player on Monday. This is a hard one. I think this would come between Denver Barkey and Garnet Hathaway. In a different situation, the quick answer is Hathaway comes out. But this has been a physical series. The Flyers have struggled since losing their rat-like tendencies. Game 6 may be the kind of game where you need someone who can get under the skin or stand up to the opponent like Hathaway. Either way, Michkov has to come back in.

Lastly, I still wonder about the goalie. Game 4, with Dan Vladar a little banged up, was the perfect chance to give Sam Ersson a game. They didn’t. Then, before Game 5, I wrote that I would play Ersson in that game, citing the fact that if you get post-break Ersson, you could close the series out, but if he lost the game, then you have a rested Vladar for Game 6 at home. Vladar played, but he looked like he was starting to run out of gas.

Now, it poses the question of whether you trust Ersson enough in a Game 6, knowing you’d have a rested Vladar in Game 7 if needed? Or, do you just keep Vladar in goal for the entire series?

It’d be a less-than-ideal time for Ersson to draw in, but you have to wonder about it.

Read More: Flyers Playoff Blog: There Should be Confidence in Sam Ersson

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