Not surprised at all that Monahan wasn't injured. I know people have a hard time believing that someone can look like a shadow of themselves in the same season.
But honestly, Monahan is a lot like Neal in my opinion. Both players need to be fed the puck in favorable situations to utilize their shots to score. They both aren't great skaters and both have a hard time creating their own shot to score, so they need someone to do the heavy lifting for them.
But what happens when the style completely changes after the All Star game when checking becomes tighter and physicality picks up? Both Monahan and Gaudreau shy away from contact, so naturally if Johnny's time and space starts to disappear and Monahan is well covered, then of course their scoring rates drop. This probably applies to Lindholm too who ended up scoring something like 2 goals in his final 2 months.
These 3 will either have to adapt and find other solutions or Treliving will have to find himself better options. Personally, I don't find Monahan to be good enough at holding on to pucks and creating time and space for his linemates which I think is a requirement for a #1 center, so he might be the odd man out if it came down to it.
|