Quote:
Originally Posted by GranteedEV
Not to give Gulutzan a free pass, but the primary issue with our roster is that we lack an elite number one center like Kopitar, Bergeron, Tavares, McDavid, Malkin, Crosby, Stamkos, Matthews, Eichel, Getzlaf, Barkov, MacKinnon who can take a defensive shift and turn it into a goal at the other end... the one-man "miracle shift". Monahan's not that calibre of player and neither is Backlund.
Tkachuk and Gaudreau are very good players but play a position where doing this is almost impossible because of where they are inherently positioned defensively.
The difference isn't the corsi or even the finishing but the lack of gamebreaking transitional play. Before Gulutzan, we had phenominal outlet passers like Gio, Brodie and Wideman mitigating that reality and feeding our transition game. That's gone now. If the Flames are an inconsistent team, it's because they are one-dimensional.
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While I agree with this somewhat, who is Nashvilles game breaking center? Vegas?
The Islanders are very inconsistent. Edmonton, Buffalo and to a lesser extent Florida are all horrible teams. So the Game breaking transitional play hasn't worked out for them... My thinking is that, yes an elite center would likely push this team over the top BUT it is not a necessity nor does it guarantee success. More than one way to skin a cat... I am starting to think Tkachuk may be the elite player we've been waiting for. He very rarely has an off-game and he seems to be getting better every game... time will tell, but I still have faith that his team is heading in the right direction and that we are still experiencing some growing pains, kinda like Winnipeg the previous couple of years.