Quote:
Originally Posted by united
Thought it was interesting that after their much-publicized struggles earlier in the season, lately the Tampa Bay Lightning have shifted Steven Stamkos back to winger duty, alongside Brayden Point and opposite Nikita Kucherov (Stamkos remains on faceoff duty but they switch as soon as safely possible afterward). Stamkos now has points in 9 of his last 10 games (14 total) and the Bolts are rolling with 15 points over that span.
I still would like to see Lindholm trialed between Gaudreau and Monahan for a few games at minimum, and preferably 10+, as he has become the best defensive forward on the team but is still able to keep up with them offensively - a terrific two-way centre.
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Unfortunately Stamkos is now out for a couple months, but I updated this post in the Flames-Lightning game thread.
While I haven't watched any Flyers games recently (probably should given how they're rolling) so didn't identify this, the most recent "16 Stats" article at The Athletic drew my attention to the Flyers shifting a struggling Claude Giroux over to wing alongside the superior two-way centre in the under-rated Sean Couturier.
Aside from that, the big difference is that Giroux has been on the wing rather than at center, and that’s where he really excels at this stage of his career. This season Giroux has an average Game Score of 0.70 when playing center scoring at a 49-point pace with a 50.7 percent expected goals rate. At wing, his average Game Score improves to 0.91 thanks to a 67-point pace and a 55.8 percent expected goals rate.
Further to the author's observations, in the 13 games since the move, Claude Giroux has 16 points with points in 10 of the 13 games with and with 12 coming at even-strength. The line over that period is rolling at 58% CF, 56% xGF, 53% GF, and the team has accumulated 22 points.