Thanks for all the input and clarification. Much appreciated! So as I understand it, the defensive rotation will kind of look like -
Close D - Mellen, Dipietro and Kennedy
LSM - Fernandez and Helmer (maybe a frosh gets a rotation or two)
SSDM - Dearth, Dami, and a host of others (Barlow, Small, Aviles, Dieball)
It sounds like Murphy will rotate in with the close defense, might he split time with DiPietro? If Kennedy is running back and forth between close and the face-off wing it might be good to give him a breather? Though we have seen him more at SSDM, I do think Murphy makes for a better close defender.
Not sure how many defenses employ a solid four man rotation, I would honestly be surprised if they tried this throughout the year. It's great to have a focus on rest and staying fresh, but all these rotations make me kind of nervous to be honest. But as Xtreme pointed out, we just have a few more days to wait. Curious what the Game Notes will say, expect they'll be out on Thursday at some point.