Quote:
Originally Posted by Gaskal
In terms of fancy stats, Kent Wilson did a piece prior to the start of the season on comparing the best teammates for each player, and Gaudreau and Ryan were a 'pairing', posting 61.9 CF% and 68.4 xGF% together.
Considering that Lucic seems to at least not drag his line down in possession like Neal did, it could add a boost to that group and give Johnny/Ryan the option to dump it into the corner on zone entries so Looch comes in with a full head of steam.
|
I think this is part of it.
Teams are really trying to pressure Gaudreau to force him to dump in the puck. But issue is this year either it's causing Gaudreau to turn it over due to the pressure, or send it into the corner where his linemates haven't been able to win the puck battle to get it back.
Ryan and Lucic has done okay in terms of winning those puck battles this year, and having somebody that is going to get in and win that battle might actually give Gaudreau a little more space when entering the zone since the defense will have to play it more honestly.