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Originally Posted by theslymonkey
You're missing what I'm saying. Points don't matter at the expense of possession and faceoffs on the third line. By swapping the two players, the third line holds the puck less because they don't win the faceoffs and start defending. And Janko has worse Corsi in general.
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Corsi is a team stat. Jankowski is not perfect, I have already said his shot suppression ability is lacking as a center. However, let's not pretend that the stat you're quoting exists in a vacuum.
Jankowski is attached to the hip to our worst possession players - Hathaway (useless on the offensive side of the blue line), Dube (loses anything resembling a puck battle), Andersson (struggles with puck recovery and entry denial), and now our absolute worst possession player Ryan Lomberg.
If you compare lines where the linemates have been similar, the most obvious one being:
Bennett - Jankowski - Neal
53.85% CF
67.74% SCF
vs
Bennett - Ryan - Neal
54.17% CF
48.48% SCF
That gap is virtually non-existant.
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The NHL runs off of puck possession and scoring chances. You need to hold the puck to generate scoring chances. That's exactly why Ryan is the right center for Neal right now.
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Ryan is terrible at holding onto the puck to generate scoring chances, though. The reason he has good possession numbers is because he's good at exiting his defensive zone with the puck. He's unable to do anything of value in the offensive zone, which has manifested in that line generating almost nothing except when Bennett or Frolik is the LW, and while Frolik - Ryan - Neal is a good option on the third line, Czarnik - Jankowski - Neal or Mangiapane - Jankowski - Neal both have similar if not higher potential.
Line construction is about players complementing each other. Ryan and Czarnik do not. Ryan and Neal have not, either. Czarnik and Neal have. Frolik and Neal have. I'd argue Jankowski and Neal do have some inherent compatibility, although the results weren't there earlier in the season when Neal was our worst player.