We love to speculate about things we can’t control. So we asked our staff today, for game one of the playoffs, what do your ideal d-pairings look like?

gardiner-rielly dermott-carrick hainsey-zaitsev hell yeah lets get weird

Rielly-Hainsey
Gardiner-Dermott
Carrick-Zaitsev. Yeah, Mike Babcock likes his lefties on the left and righties on the right. But at some point, it would be in his best interest to accept that Nikita Zaitsev is not a top four defenseman. But guess what? Travis Dermott is! Worry about how bad that Zaitsev contract is later – it’s the playoffs, baby. Let’s go.

The playoffs are all about toughness and grit, so I put together the grittiest d-pairs that could ever grit.

Hainsey-Polak
Rielly-Zaitsev
Gardiner-Dermott

Bam, instant Cup. While I’m at it, let’s make Komarov the first line centre.

Last time we were in the playoffs we only made it to 6 games, whereas when we had Mark Fraser, we made it to 7 games against Boston. I would recommend signing Fraser, scratching Gardiner for the playoffs and running

Rielly – Polak
Hainsey – Polak
Fraser – also Polak

Rielly – Hainsey
Gardiner – Dermott
Zaitsev – Carrick.

Polak has conceded so many penalties this season – you need smart players for the playoffs who make smart plays. Polak does neither.