Quote:
Originally Posted by Fan in Exile
I would be really happy with a third line of Colborne-Backlund-Frolik. The problem is that despite the fact that they are all 30-40 point guys, they are currently 3rd, 5th and 6th in Flames' forward scoring (excluding Hudler) with no other forward with more than 12 points. Who are the three players who will fill the holes on the first two lines apart from Gaudreau, Monahan and Bennett?
Three of your top six forwards and a number one goaltender are some pretty gaping holes to fill for any team. And that's assuming Bennett continues to develop and steps up. Lots of reason to think he will but hardly a given.
I think in a rebuild, you have to hope that at least one or two of those three guys take the next step up and can be top six players. They all show the possibility but don't have consistency.
Backlund is not a steady 0.5 ppg player. He had one point through the first thirteen games of the season - one point as a our second line centre. He has had 17 points in the last twenty games. So at times he has no offensive upside at all and currently he is at 0.85 points a game. Clearly he has the ability to be better than he has been for long stretches throughout his career. The times when Backlund has been really good have been late in the year when the Flames are out of it. These stretches have teased us into thinking he can be a solid second line centre. He deserves criticism for his inconsistency. He deserves criticism for giving us nothing at the beginning of the season. As I recall he was terrible defensively at the beginning of the season as well. What's wrong with wanting him to be the player he is at this point of the season on a more consistent basis?
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There's no such thing as a consistent 40 point player. It's why they are 40 point players.
Regardless, Backlund's "inconsistency" (if you can call it that) likely draws heavily into his role on the team. He gets a lot of defensive zone faceoffs against the other team's best lines. The quality of the opposition he's getting matched up against on a given stretch is going to impact his scoring. You go through a California road trip and get matched up against Kopitar/Getzlaf/Thornton ideally - you simply aren't going to put up a lot of points.
And he gets 2nd unit powerplay time too. That's where most "consistent" scorers pad their numbers. Give Backlund first unit powerplay time and he starts getting the odd second assist more often. I'm not suggesting that's a good idea, but that's usually what separates what people perceive as consistent scorers from everyone else.