Quote:
Originally Posted by Rick M.
If Backlund had centred that line, things might have been quite different.
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Sure, then you would've had Monahan playing a position he's never played.
Even then, the line has been so bad together that simply swapping Backlund and Monahan, even if it turned out to have a positive effect, wouldn't be anywhere close to drastic enough to completely swap their horrible results.
Backlund is an excellent player and has been the Flames' best two-way center for 6+ years now. Tkachuk has just proven that he's been more effective defensively as a LW'er than Backlund has as a C, which isn't a sleight to Backlund at all, because C is the toughest position to play, but Tkachuk has simply proven that relative to his peers and his peers' positions that he's been one of, if not the Flames' best 5v5 defensive forward since he entered the NHL.