Quote:
Originally Posted by Kasi
What about pairing Backlund and Monohan? With Bennett and Lindholm we have two guys quite capable of playing center that aren’t right now. But Monahan is a good finisher and Backlund isn’t so put the two together with someone.
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I don't dislike the idea, but this team has generally been very resistant to trying some players on the wing, even if it's a good idea. They never tried Granlund on the wing, they have yet to try Jankowski on the wing, and I suspect it's the same deal with Monahan.
Also, I'm not convinced Lindholm is all that capable of playing center. His metrics suggested some weakness defensively in Carolina and that appears to be carrying over here. His CA/60.Rel is pretty low most years. He's a good PKer, which would suggest he's a good defensive player, but it just doesn't seem to translate at 5 on 5. *shrug*
On the other hand Bennett's an interesting situation. We had a pretty decent line of Gaudreau-Bennett-Frolik in his rookie year, but once Frolik and Backlund became inseparable so too did Gaudreau and Monahan. Whereas Lindholm's struggles have come on the defensive side of things, Bennett's have come on the offensive side as a center as his line in his second year didn't generate very many chances. If you dug deeper it seemed this applied moreso to the Versteeg-Bennett-Brouwer line (40.95 CF/60 & 49.57 CA/60) than the Versteeg-Bennett-Chiasson line (48.29 CF/60 & 33.33 CA/60), and indeed that latter line was pretty effective in the playoffs. But we never did see Bennett at center again outside of a short leash the next season where his shooting percentage killed him.
Personally, I would like to see Bennett back at center, but I'm not so sure about Lindholm. Perhaps a top nine along the lines of:
Tkachuk-Monahan-Czarnik
The idea behind this line is that Monahan gets two very responsible wingers who can still set him up offensively. On paper though, this is a line that would force opponents to match up defensively which is what you want.
Frolik-Backlund-Lindholm
Pure shutdown line. Lindholm's face off skill would also help, presumably.
Gaudreau-Bennett-Neal
A bit more sheltered, but Neal would hopefully start finding some chemistry with Gaudreau. I have confidence that Bennett can handle the defensive side of things here quite a bit better than Monahan due to his skating and defensive poise, and I believe his offense would come, possibly even able to set up Gaudreau and get Johnny past the 30 goal mark he hasn't seen since his rookie year. Another advantage of this line on paper is that you wouldn't be able to take cheap shots on Gaudreau without answering to the two toughest skill players on the team. Anyone remember this from the original Gaudreau-Bennett experiment:
https://giant.gfycat.com/ImperturbableCalmLamprey.webm
?
I do think these above nine players are our nine best players with each of Jankowski, Dube, and Ryan presently just far enough below for it to make a tangible difference. Actually that's a bit of a lie - I think Jankowski's better than Frolik, but this comes right back to "team is hesitant to play Jankowski on the wing". I think Jankowski on the wing, especially on Backlund's line, could tear it up and be a dominant force instead of an inconsistent 4C.