Quote:
Originally Posted by Textcritic
You make it sound in your earlier posts as though Horvat has distinguished himself as obviously superior to Monahan as a result of his playoff performances, and yet I cannot help but notice that both Horvat and Monahan have virtually identical scoring percentages @ 0.7 pts/GP. Monahan even out-paced Horvat in his playoff-scoring rate in 2020 with 8 points in 10 games, compared to Horvat's 12 in 17. Monahan had a really bad playoff series in 2019, but apart from that one outlier he has consistently been one of the Flames's best performers every other post-season, and last year was no exception.
Yeah, I get that production is not everything—Horvat is the captain of his team, and oozes GRIT™ and toughness et al. But I have to think that given Monahan's pretty consistent showing through most of his playoff career that they are much, much closer to equal than you will admit. If anything, I sure think it nullifies any notion that Horvat has passed Monahan. It seems to me that he may not even be on his level, to say nothing for having passed him.
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Yes I said I believe Horvat has surpassed Monahan. That playoff performance was what leadership is all about. He drove the bus and helped will his team to victory over the Wild in the play in round and then against the defending champs in the first round. While he was doing that, Monahan and Gaudreau were having another piss poor playoff round this time against the Dallas Stars. You continue to talk about point totals, but Monahan and Gaudreau’s numbers were extremely flattering. They may have taken advantage on the powerplay, much like the Anaheim series in 2017 as well, but their play at even strength was absolutely abysmal and was a huge reason why this team was ousted.
Back to Horvat though, the conversation between him and Monahan go far beyond points. It’s really not even a fair comparison in a lot of ways because they play different roles. Monahan plays in a scoring role with an elite playmaker in Gaudreau and he gets sheltered minutes with crazy high offensive zone starts so they don’t get buried on the cycle in the defensive end.
Horvat on the other hand plays the exact opposite role. He plays against the tougher matchups, gets buried in defensive zone starts and generally plays with Tanner Pearson at even strength, yet is still able to produce on non scoring role. He skates better then Monahan and he’s hard to play against. He’s like a Mikael Backlund with better goal scoring ability. All this plus his playoff prowess is why I’d personally take Horvat over Monahan. To each their own though.