The adjustment bureau: CC vs. UNO

It's Monday night and the tigers have the day off. Somehow they earned that after a chilling sweep away against a far inferior opponent.

I won't bludgeon that horse anymore. I'll move on to this weekends match up against the University of Nebraska-Omaha.

Last fall, CC had the wild chance to play Omaha. Even then, the team struggled and it seemed that making adjustments was not in the cards for Scott Owens. At the time the defense was lagging and our previous goaltender of two years had fallen victim to becoming part of a goal tending tandem. During the weekend the tigers picked up a split. Considering it was an away game, that's pretty dandy.

The first night, CC lost 7-5. I really bad night in net for joe as he let in 7 goals on 35 shots. The next night, Thorimbert stepped in and held up the net for 45 saves and only two goals. Offense was the key at the time, as it seemed to be the only consistent thing. Goaltending was difficult to predict at best and the defense was floundering.

Fast forward a couple of months and the situation is quite precarious. Josh has established himself as the new #1 guy and Joe continues to disintegrate. The offense has cooled and become unreliable while the weeks of learning has paid off for the defense.
One could be quite excited for this game, but the problem is that our #1 guy in net is hurt. He likely won't see action on friday judging from the nature of his injury. Which means the team will need to rely on Joe Howe to get the job done. Not an easy task for a guy who's 5-7-1 on the season including a loss to anchorage and a sweep against bemidji. To be fair, Joe also participated in the home sweep against bemidji as well.
So here lies the task: How does Scott Owens adjust his team for this game. Well based on what I've seen during the past three months of this season, Owens doesn't do anything except give Jaden and Rylan more time. It seems that whenever the team is doing bad, that duo get's more time than Chris Pronger(when he's not injured).
How does Scott adjust Joe to get back in the game? Simple: he doesn't. Joe has to do that himself. He's got the ability to do it as we saw him in relief against Denver.

In my opinion, here is what has to be done...INEVITABLY!
1. Split the Schwartz brothers up. Jaden needs to come off the first line. It's not that Jaden cannot handle the first line, it's that Jaden could go anywhere and make that line better. Rylan on the other hand can score until the cows come home. If Owens splits these guys up, the team will have two solid lines.

2. Put Harstad and Stoykwich on the same line. They are both draftee's and they both have the ability to do good things. I believe that these two can provide speed for an entire shift.

3. Put Bidwill and Guentzel together. These guys are a good tandem. They work well together and Bidwill has a hard work ethic.

4. If thorny cannot play, get lockwood ready. Joe needs some time off away from the game. He has been to every road game since he came to CC. He should get a night on the bench behind Lockwood. Better yet, when thorny comes back, don't dress howe. Get his mind off the game for some time. He needs it. He needs perspective. Because he's all CC has right now and we've got to get him better.