Quote:
Originally Posted by Harry Lime
I think that the point I'm trying to make is utilization. The only player with finish on the second line is Tkachuk. Backlund and Frolik are great at what they do, but putting up points is not their forte.
The only time we have seen flashes from Bennett this year is when he was put in an offensive role, otherwise he has been a non factor.
Janko looked great before he learned the system.
All three of them are not suited to be Backlund Jr. All of them seem to be asked to be just that.
Should we not clone the first line, and not the second line, if scoring consistently is our Achilles heel? Especially if the skill set of these three is more suited to the role?
It's great that Backlunds line is a handful, but it will never produce offense at the rate that the team needs, so why is there never an adjustment to fix the problem? If Jankowski was asked to play like Monahan, he would put more pressure on the opposition in the offensive zone, and there would not be such a feeling of being overwhelmed.
Anyway, probably too late to try this year.
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All this roles talk is meaningless. The coaches aren't asking guys not to produce. Does anyone honestly believe that if they just slapped a 2nd line label onto the 3rd line that it changes anything at all? Like what exactly changes?
The 3rd line goes out and tries to produce offense whenever they're on the ice anyway. They're not asked to do anything special here. They're just incapable right now because they're simply not good enough. The 2nd line does produce and they defend very well against the opposition's top lines to boot, that's why they're the default 2nd line.
The honest truth is that if the Jankowski line was better and became more of a handful to deal with, then other teams would be forced to throw better defenders out there against them. Teams don't do that though because they're a non-threat right now. They don't spend a lot of time cycling or creating chances, they don't tire out defenders, they don't force the opposition to respect them. That's why they're not a 2nd line right now.