In the Flyers’ Game 4 win against Montreal on Tuesday, there were some changes to the forward lines made by Alain Vigneault that, despite the victory, left me feeling slightly puzzled. Coming back into the fray were both Joel Farabee and Connor Bunnaman, who would replace the injured Nicolas Aube-Kubel, and interestingly, James van Riemsdyk. I hadn’t thought that van Riemsdyk looked particularly noteworthy, either good nor bad, in Game 3, so to see him pulled from the lineup was slightly surprising. Well, in the end, I understand why this was done.
The Flyers obviously want Joel Farabee to be playing, and with van Riemsdyk toiling away on the fourth line, which I didn’t get the feeling they liked doing, replacing him made sense.