As much as I often think Albom just recycles his columns and mails them in with name changes, he does point out the obvious along with an info nugget from Puck Daddy:

“But Datsyuk isn’t even contributing in the non-scoring ways you’d expect of him. In yesterday’s game, he had a turnover differential of minus-2, and he neither created nor gave up a turnover in the first game. Overall, he is tied for 39th in takeaways with four, but is tied for 23rd in giveaways with six. To give you an idea of just how severe the dropoff has been, Datsyuk led the league in turnover differential at plus-49 in the regular season.”

I would expect something from Babcock to get them thinking and playing at a different energy level.

You know… I totally agree. The lines that he has now have worked, but during the regular season whenever the lines got stale, he switched it up. Usually it worked magic. The Datsyuk, Hossa line was great at the start of the year then it tailed off. Then he put Datsyuk back with Z and Franzen and Hossa together and it worked great. Then that got stale and he switched back. It worked again.

Right now I think Babcock wants Z, Hoss, and Clear against the RPG line. I see no problem playing Dats, Z, and Homer, or Hoss, Franzen, and Cleary or Filppula against them. I agree with your lines.

Other suggested lines.

Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Holmstrom
Hossa, Franzen, Cleary
Hudler, Filppula, Samuelsson
Maltby, Helm, Kopecky

Then I just say you alternate who plays against the RPG line. That way no one gets worn out just trying to play defense. Datsyuk needs a spark, and new linemates usually does it for him.

…why didn’t Babcock switch to ZDH in game 2?

I love it when a plan comes together.