The Sabres are in town to face the Flyers tonight, and maybe Dave Hakstol doesn’t feel threatened by them or something. Because in the midst of a three-game losing streak, I don’t know how else to explain these roster moves.
R.J. Umberger: back in.
Matt Read: out.
Jordan Weal: in.
Scott Laughton: out.
No lines yet. We’ll know those before the game during warmups. But uh … at least Jordan Weal is getting a chance to play finally? I think Ryan Bright summed this up best:
Need offense? Take out Matt Read (18 points in 51 games) and replace with RJ Umberger (21 points the last 2 seasons). That should do it.
— Ryan Bright (@philabright) February 11, 2016
I don’t know. I like Hakstol and think he’s been fantastic for most of his first year as a head coach, and I’m sure he has his reasons for this, but from the outside those reasons are pretty hard to see. I’m sure he’s trying to lean on certain players and try to get more out of them, and he doesn’t want to leave guys like Umberger on the shelf for too long because he wants to give them another chance to snap out of it.
But at some point you need to simply ice the best lineup you can, right? That’s your best chance to win consistently. Tonight’s lineup is not the best lineup Dave Hakstol has at his disposal tonight.
Hey, on the bright side, Michal Neuvirth is back from injury. He’ll backup Steve Mason tonight against the Sabres.
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news via all the damn beat writers; we’d source one but they all do the same thing and tweet it at the same time, so
