It feels kind of weird to say that I’ve been happy with DJ Smith’s lineup decisions during this Canucks series when the team played so badly, but I don’t exactly blame the team’s poor play on those lineup decisions (we’ll get to the things I do blame later).
One consistent theme during the Jets series was Smith’s over-reliance on veterans over young players - a baffling choice during a rebuild year. Colin White mostly stayed in the press box until Wednesday despite looking good in the few games he did play, Stützle was obviously out with an injury, and the Tkachuk-Norris-Batherson line wasn’t being trusted nearly enough.