Rosen's mailbag - March 18, 2015

Here is the March 18 edition of Rosen's weekly mailbag, which will run every Wednesday during the season. If you have a question, tweet it to @drosennhl and use #OvertheBoards.

Let's get to it:

Is Ken Hitchcock's lineup tweaking a good or bad idea? -- @Allen_Schneider

There are times when coaches tweak for the sake of tweaking, almost as if they're bored and they just want to tinker because they can. More often, though, coaches tweak in order to keep players on their toes and to test out other lineup combinations in case of injuries, suspensions, etc. Hitchcock knows that with the St. Louis Blues he can tweak it here and there, but always go back to old reliable. I wouldn't worry about it too much. If the Blues are healthy come time for the Stanley Cup Playoffs I have no doubt that you'll see the following top three forward lines:

Alexander Steen - David Backes - T.J. Oshie

Jaden Schwartz - Jori Lehtera - Vladimir Tarasenko

Dmitrij Jaskin - Paul Stastny - Patrik Berglund

I also have no doubt that you'll see the following defense pairs:

Jay Bouwmeester - Alex Pietrangelo

Carl Gunnarsson - Kevin Shattenkirk

Barrett Jackman - Zbynek Michalek

Why not just 10 minutes of 4-on-4 in overtime? -- @JGrasseySr

The general managers are already worried about making the games too long and the players are leery about adding two minutes of time to overtime to follow the American Hockey League model, so it's unlikely either side would be in favor of going from five to 10 minutes, doubling the length of overtime. The general managers are trying to keep the demands on the players reasonable. While five minutes of extra time sounds minimal, it is added stress on the body, particularly for the star players, who are likely to play more in overtime. There is further risk of injury.

Who do you think will win the Atlantic Division? Eastern Conference? Why? -- @tblightning491

I'm not ready to make my pick on the Eastern Conference just yet, but I do think Carey Price will be the difference in getting the Montreal Canadiens the Atlantic Division title in the regular season. If I had to bet on anybody this season (and I don't bet), it would be on Price. If I had a vote for the Hart Trophy (and I don't) he would be No. 1 on my ballot. I don't particularly like how the Canadiens play, with the number of shots and total shot attempts they allow, but Price is the difference and he'll be good enough to get them first in the division. I will say that Montreal was my preseason favorite to represent the Eastern Conference in the Stanley Cup Final, but I'm not leaning in that direction now.

With Henrik Lundqvist returning to practice, do you think he will be in come playoff time despite the play of Cam Talbot? -- @InitialAK

If he's healthy my answer is yes, yes, a thousand times yes.

I don't think I really need to explain to anybody how good Lundqvist is and how experience matters in the playoffs. Cam Talbot has 46 minutes of it. Lundqvist has appeared in 92 playoff games and took the Rangers to the Stanley Cup Final last season, finishing the playoffs with a .927 save percentage.

It's utterly ridiculous to think that Lundqvist is not best suited for the job in the playoffs because Talbot has had a nice run as his fill-in No. 1 goalie. Full marks to Talbot for what he has done, particularly in the past six games, but Lundqvist is the Rangers' best goalie, their No. 1 goalie, and their best option in the playoffs.

Do you think that Calgary will stay as one of the wild-card teams in the Western Conference? -- @PHemley08

I tweeted the following last week:

"I give up giving up on the Flames."

As much as I think the way Calgary is winning games this season is unsustainable, I do in fact believe they are the outlier that will get into the playoffs this season. On the whole the Flames are an average team. They're 15th in the NHL standings as of Wednesday. You can't get much more average than that. But they are plus-34 in goal differential in the third period and they earned 23 points in games when they are trailing after two periods. They are winning in ways that make zero sense, but the fact is they are winning.

So, yeah, I give up on giving up on the Flames. They'll get a wild card.

My best guess is the Los Angeles Kings finish second in the Pacific Division followed by the Vancouver Canucks and then the Flames. The Minnesota Wild will get the first wild card and the Flames will get the second, leaving the Winnipeg Jets just short of making it. It might even come down to the ROW tiebreaker for the Flames and Jets; Calgary has 34, Winnipeg has 29.

If you were Joe Sakic and couldn't re-sign Ryan O'Reilly, what is the deal you would want from the Buffalo Sabres for him? -- @Hoskinsauce

Ryan O'Reilly

Center - COL

GOALS: 11 | ASST: 30 | PTS: 41
SOG: 132 | +/-: -4

So to your question, if the Sabres are interested in O'Reilly (why wouldn't they be?) and Sakic is interested in trading him, the first place Colorado has to look is on defense. The Avalanche need help on 'D' but they want to win now, so they wouldn't want to get a prospect who isn't ready or draft picks. Zach Bogosian is who I would target if I were Sakic in this situation. He's the first guy. I would also target the second of Buffalo's first-round draft picks this season.

What is causing the Islanders' slump? -- @IanBirny

They're not scoring and they might be a little tired. Simple as that. They have one goal in each of their past four games and didn't have much fight against the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday in a 4-1 loss. You're not going to win when you don't score and you don't battle.

Losing Nick Leddy has had a big impact on the offense, particularly the power play. He is their best puck mover from the back end and they can't replace what he does. As soon as Leddy went out of the lineup I knew the Islanders were going to struggle to score. It hasn't helped that the Islanders have run into some hot goaltenders in Talbot, Price, Andrew Hammond and Corey Crawford.

It's a good time for the Islanders to have a bit of a break in the schedule. They're off until Saturday, so they can take some time to rest, work on their offensive game in practice, and see what's happening when they go through some video. I think this time off will benefit the Islanders. It has to because they have a tough stretch next week with home games against the Wild, Kings, Anaheim Ducks and Detroit Red Wings.

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