When someone mentioned to me that Baggot had an update on the lineup for this weekend and it included Pat Johnson on the third line, I thought they were joking. Apparently not. Senior Andy Bohmbach has been moved from the third line down to the fourth and Pat Johnson has taken his place.
According to Baggots article, "Quite honestly, I thought Bomber missed some checks early in the game (against Michigan) on Saturday and it's a little reminder to him,'' Eaves said Thursday. "And we're giving Patrick a chance to step up and play with that group of guys and see what he can get done.''
Now, I have no problems with sending a message to Bohmbach by playing him with the fourth line. I do have a problem with promoting Pat Johnson in order to make the move. Pat Johnson is not that good with the puck, hes not that good defensively, hes not that good on the pk, he's not that good on the power play, he's not a physical presence, he doesn't bring any extra energy. I think I would like to use a quote from Office Space and ask Patrick, "what would you say, ya do here?"
The answer over the past two seasons is, absolutely nothing. A whopping 13 points in the past two seasons (61 games). If anything this would be a good opportunity to get Derek Lee (9 points in only 16 games this season) or even Podge Turnbull some action up on that third line. I'm sick of the Patrick Johnson experiment. If he doesn't have Kyle Turris on his line, he can't do anything productive.
Here are the projected lines for Friday night:
Wisconsin:
Jordy Murray-Blake Geoffrion-Craig Smith
Ben Street-Derek Stepan-Michael Davies
John Mitchell-Aaron Bendickson-Pat Johnson
Andy Bohmbach-Sean Dolan-Ben Grotting
Ryan McDonagh-Jake Gardiner
Brendan Smith-John Ramage
Cody Goloubef-Justin Schultz
Scott Gudmandson
Minnesota State
Geoff Irwin-Jerad Stewart-Kael Mouillierat
Adam Mueller-Zach Harrison-Justin Jokinen
Mike Dorr-Tyler Pitlick-Eriah Hayes
Andy Sackrison-Rylan Galiardi-Mike Louwerse
Channing Boe-Kurt Davis
Ben Youds-Tyler Elbrecht
Cameron Cooper-Evan Mosey
Austin Lee
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