Quote:
Originally Posted by SebC
The distinction I'm drawing is that prior to Jankowski-Bennett breaking out, we had:
Scoring line (Monahan)
Two-way line (Backlund)
Garbage (Bennett)
Garbage (Stajan)
Now we have:
Scoring line (Monahan)
Scoring line (Jankowski)
Two-way line (Backlund)
Garbage (Stajan)
You might still see Backlund's line pass Jankowski's in minutes (particularly to close out games that we're winning), but they no longer have to be our shut down line and the secondary scoring threat at the same time. It's a huge change in dynamic.
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Don't look now, but that 4th line is no longer getting hemmed in their own zone all game, and zapping the energy right out of the team. No idea what the advanced metrics are, but I would say in the last handful of games, that 4th line has been at the very least holding its' own, if not pushing the pace more often than not.
Flames haven't had a regular 'garbage' line in at least a handful of games, and that is really refreshing to see (and at the start of the season, I felt that the 4th line would have been a good one, but have been tremendously disappointed since the start of the season).