and if richards goes.

it's kind of flabbergasting that richards even attempted to play. between this and petro last year, i am wondering how serious "player safety" is taken during the playoffs. the guys will always want to go, but cmon, there was not even 24 hours separating the injury from the decision.

with toffoli, the only thing is that there is kind of diminishing marginal return on a rookie's minutes often, i think. you play a guy for 12 minutes, he doesn't give you that same quality, consistency and intensity over 22. i think he could settle around 15 and do well. get him some power play time, he's good along the boards and he can snipe.

as far as injury luck goes, yeah, i had a talk with justin williams about that last year (a guy who knows injuries!) and he was talking about the importance of things falling into place, with health being the biggest. the breaks tend to even out, right?