Quote:
Originally Posted by ComixZone
Gaudreau was up ice with him as well. The trailing man for the Oilers wasn't even involved in the goal. It was a rapid play back up the ice with Poolparty and McDavid doing a quick give and go.
You're on a witch hunt at this stage. The 1-1 goal, he pretty passively challenges the point shot - fair criticism - but we're not talking about that. We're talking about Poolparty's goal, which to say was his fault is an absolute joke. Lindholm and Tanev BOTH made a mistake, and Lindholm even knew it. When you've got McDavid and someone rushing up at you, and two players both get beat (Tanev and Lindholm), you're in trouble.
To say it was because Bennett's rebound came out an unfortunate angle that allowed for a quick transition that the goal against was caused by him is ridiculous in this situation. You're just looking for reasons to blame him.
Bennett flat out hasn't been good this year - which, before Saturday, he shared that in common with the majority of Flames forwards. On this play though? That goal against is not caused by him in any real way (unlike the poor effort on the 1-1 goal).
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Highish backhands on the rush like that on are also one of the tougher shots for goalies to save, and it's been the go-to play of some damn elite players in that situation - guys like Crosby and Datsyuk.
Anyways, I was doing some digging.
Here was my question:
What is a realistic production expectation for any successful winger playing with Gaudreau and Monahan?
For sensibility sake, I omitted 2014-15 Jiri Hudler. He was the team's leading scorer that year and had an absolute Midas touch where he was deflecting every point shot and sniping every pass. I believe he led the NHL in even strength points, period, that season, even ahead of the Art Ross winner. Correct me if I am mistaken though. That would be unfair to anyone, even Lindholm.
The first thing I want to note, is that I'm looking at 5-on-5 production. All-situations production would only make sense if a forward were to be playing in all situations with those two.
So the three wingers that actually had success with this pair, we all know who they are:
Sept 2015- Feb 28 2016 Jiri Hudler (
24 pts in 689:30 (2.09 p/60)
Feb 07 2017 - March 22 2018 Micheal Ferland
42 pts in 1223:28 (2.06 p/60)
2018-20 Elias Lindholm
67 pts in 2052:46 (1.96 p/60)
It's not perfect, like we all know Lindholm scored a bunch of points playing on a line with Tkachuk and Mangiapane last year, and Hudler saw some time with Backlund and Bennett in 2016 too (including Bennett's 4 goal game), but i'm sure any winger playing with Johnny and Monny this season will also see some time apart from them.
In aggregate, the three successful third wheels for this forwarrd pairing have produced 133 5v5 pts in 3965:44 - or 2.01 pt/60. For rounding sake, let's just call that two points for every sixty minutes of 5v5 icetime.
Last night against Edmonton, Bennett logged 11:28 of 5v5 icetime, while Monahan logged 11:45. Let's assume Ward will be consistent with this ice time distribution for Bennett, or in other words that Monahan and Bennett will roughly log the same icetime so long as they are playing together. Monahan's season average of 12:13 isn't far off from that mark.
So, assuming Sam Bennett logs 12:00 minutes of 5v5 icetime per game for the rest of the season (45 more games) he should log 540 more minutes. So far he has 17:55 logged with them with 1 pt. By the end of the season, if he is to produce ~2.0 pts/60 with them, he would need roughly 17.5 more points.
So, if Sam Bennett can produce 17 or 18 5v5 pts in the next 45 games, then he would be right in line with Lindholm, Hudler, and Ferland.
Will he do it? (or at least pace for it before being traded?)
We will find out, I guess.
It'd be cool if someone could do a point production snake though.