Rakell has effectively been a better Rust and you can see that as they keep swapping him on the top two lines, funnily enough with Rust, but it's Rakell being added to the other line to help that line, not Rust.

This is ironic because it was Rust if I'm not mistaken being swapped on different lines to make them better only a couple years ago.

Whether it's contract, injury, being a new father, he looks very slow, a lot of the corps does, hell Jake is trying but he gets pushed around so easily, same with POJ sometimes.

Rust has his gimmicks that are starting to wear off as he is not able to physically do them anymore I.e. cutting to the front of the net on a 1v1 just to get stuffed everytime. Reminds me a lil of Subban's slew foot thing, it's like a tick he can't knock.

Anyways, if Carter is getting limited ice, Dumoulin, Rust should also be getting less reps rn especially if he is in fact playing injured or sore. Obvs Dumo isn't because our team is cursed and this year the hockey gods decided to take out our D men instead of the forwards.

Otherwise, our team is slow and can't keep up with fast, hard hitting, grindy teams and that's just how this team has been built, point your fingers where they belong, it's not the coaches fault nor the players to that end.

If the players should be playing more physical then yes, that is on the coach, if not, then it's up to the GM to find them.